THE  ILLUMINATION  OF 
JOSEPH  KEELER,  ESQ. 


OR 


ON,  TO  THE  LAND 


BY 


PETER  H.  BRYCE,  M.A.,  M.D. 


THE   ILLUMINATION  OF 
JOSEPH  KEELER,  ESQ. 


OR 


ON,  TO  THE  LAND! 


BY 


PETER  H.  BRYCE,  M.  A.,  M.  D, 


ietyou  s/ia/lh 
"dsklcyonsbroodiiyont  win 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OP 

PUBLIC  HEALTH,  755  BOYLSTON  ST., 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


MAIN  U»K  A  «Y- AGRICULTURE 


COPYRIGHTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 
AND  CANADA,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     Halcyon  Days  on  Presqu'  Isle  Bay 1 

II.     High  Ancestry  of  the  Keeler  Family 7 

III.  History  of  Early  Settlement  at  the  Carrying 

Place 11 

IV.  Joseph  Keeler  Visits  the  Home  of  His  Ancestors  15 
V.     Official  Report  to  Family  on  Paternal  Gen- 
ealogy    19 

VI.     Discussion  on   Causes  of  High  Prices,   with 

Results 21 

VII.     Joseph   Keeler,    Student   of   Early  Canadian 

History 27 

VIII.     When  Upper  Canada  Became  the  Dominant 

Partner 31 

IX.    The  Heir  of  the  Keelers  under  a  Social  Cloud .  .         35 
X.    The    Professor    as    a    Student    of    Canadian 

Economics 41 

XI.    Joseph  Keeler  Recalls  Commercial  and  Political 

Events  of  Forty  Years 47 

XII.     The  Exit  of  John  Keeler  from  Frenzied  Finance        53 

XIII.  Rural    Depopulation    and    Urban    Overpop- 

ulation           57 

XIV.  The  Stress  of  Society  Functions  Has  Unfortu- 

nate Results 63 

XV.    The  Problem  of  High  Prices  Analyzed 67 

XVI.     Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Turns  Farmer 73 

XVII.     The  Legal  Evolution  of  an  Agriculturist 81 

XVIII.    Halcyon  Days  Have  Come  Again  Down  on  the 

Lake  Shore 87 

XIX.     The  Philosopher's  Stone  Discovered .  .  93 


iii 


s*  r* 


FOREWORD 

I  have  read  with  keen  interest  Dr.  Bryce's  allegory  portray- 
ing certain  social  and  economic  conditions  of  that  great  Domin- 
ion for  which  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  so  much 
regard,  and  with  whose  welfare  and  prosperity  they  are  pro- 
foundly concerned.  In  the  presence  of  the  most  awful  war 
hitherto  known  to  mankind,  nothing  affords  an  American 
greater  satisfaction  than  that  boundary  line,  4,000  miles  long 
between  Canada  and  the  United  States,  which,  nominally 
unfortified,  is  in  fact  jealously  guarded  by  essential  friendliness, 
international  respect  and  mutual  esteem. 

Dr.  Bryce's  equipment  as  the  learned  and  experienced  Chief 
Medical  Officer  of  Immigration  of  Canada  has  brought  him  face 
to  face  with  those  fundamental  problems  of  life  and  living  which 
within  the  last  half  century  have  put  upon  the  open  road  a 
hitherto  unexampled  number  of  the  human  race.  These  migra- 
tions are  at  bottom  quests  for  more  liberty,  more  and  better 
food,  and  better  housing,  and  all  of  these  have  been  found, 
perhaps  as  never  before,  in  the  new  world.  And  yet  any  close 
observer  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  that  strange  counter 
migration  today,  drawing  the  children  of  the  original  immi- 
grants away  from  the  land  and  into  the  cities,  which  like 
magnets  seem  to  possess  an  almost  inexplicable  attraction. 

For  some  years  Dr.  Bryce  has  been  a  careful  student  of  rural 
depopulation  and,  not  content  with  merely  observing  phenom- 
ena, has  sought  to  estimate  and  to  control  them. 

The  pages  which  follow  will  be  found  to  contain  many 
interesting  data  of  population,  overpopulation,  depopulation, 
food  supply  and  the  like,  together  with  much  incidental  infor- 
mation of  value  such  as  that  which  relates  how,  after  the  Irish 
famine  of  1846,  5,463  immigrants  died  of  typhus  fever  on  their 
arrival  in  the  St.  Lawrence. 

May  this  little  volume  incite  to  a  closer  study  of  these  prob- 
lems many  a  thoughtful  person  both  in  the  Dominion  and  in 
the  United  States,  for  the  same  problems  are  confronting  both 
peoples  and  are  found  on  both  sides  of  the  line. 

W.  T.  SEDGWICK, 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  May  1,  1915. 


PREFACE 

This  is  a  story  written  with  a  definite  purpose. 

The  phenomenon  being  forced  at  this  moment  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  a  population  of  100,000,000  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  possessing  almost  illimitable  areas  of  what  one  hun- 
dred years  ago  was  mostly  virgin  soil,  finding  itself  actually 
importing  foodstuffs  at  high  prices,  must  inevitably  cause  those 
genuinely  concerned  in  the  health,  prosperity,  and  therefore  in 
the  happiness  of  the  people,  to  seek  seriously  for  such  explana- 
tions as  if  not  wholly  satisfactory  may,  at  least  serve  to  make 
prominent  certain  social,  economic  and  scientific  facts  intimately 
associated  with  the  phenomenon. 

During  the  past  decade,  with  a  series  of  years  of  successively 
average  crops,  and  the  influx  of  some  10,000,000  immigrants, 
largely  of  the  working  classes,  there  has  been  witnessed  an 
aggregation  of  people  in  the  urban  centres  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada  exceeding  the  total  number  of  this  immigration; 
while  the  total  increase  in  the  number  of  persons  cultivating 
the  land  has  been  relatively  small. 

The  demands  of  railway  construction,  of  industrial  expansion 
and  of  city  building  have  given  temporary  employment  to  work- 
men; while  the  opportunities  for  the  centralized  investment  of 
capital  have  resulted  in  the  development  of  speculative  enter- 
prises and  in  the  diversion  of  both  public  attention  and  private 
capital  from  the  true  basis  of  all  wealth,  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil. 

The  inevitable  outcome  of  these  several  combined  causes  is 
today  being  brought  home  to  both  peoples  in  certain  economic 
effects,  which,  though  unpleasant  and  distressing  to  many,  will 
not  have  been  without  salutary  and  beneficial  results  if  they 
serve  to  turn  such  again  toward  those  essential  virtues  and 
simple  pleasures  which  have  ever  been  associated  with  successful 
agriculture. 

That  the  attention  of  the  best  and  most  substantial  citizens 
of  both  countries,  leaders  in  industrial  enterprises  and  in  the 


VU 


viii  Preface 

application  of  scientific  knowledge,  may  be  directed  through 
the  perusal  of  this  story  to  the  imperative  national  need  for 
their  active  interest  and  practical  intervention  in  the  problem 
of  the  reconstruction  of  rural  prosperity  and  of  social  progress 
in  all,  but  especially  in  the  older  states  and  provinces,  is  the 
sincere  hope  of  the  author. 

PETER  H.  BRYCE. 


THE  ILLUMINATION  OF  JOSEPH  KEELER, 
ON,  TO  THE  LAND  ! 
(A  STORY  OF  HIGH  PRICES) 


CHAPTER  I 
HALCYON  DAYS  ON  PRESQU'  ISLE  BAY 

"Those  were,  indeed,  halcyon  days"  were  the  words  which 
especially  arrested  the  attention  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  whole- 
sale merchant,  Toronto,  as  one  Sunday  evening  he  turned  the 
pages  of  an  old  chronicle  in  the  Papers  of  the  Ontario  Historical 
Society,  telling  of  the  days  of  early  settlement  on  the  eastern 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario. 

Mr.  Keeler  had  been  greatly  interested  in  the  story  of  long 
ago  in  that  part  of  Upper  Canada,  which  he  had  left  when  a  lad 
of  five  summers,  with  his  father,  who,  finding  trade  in  his 
general  store  going  yearly  from  bad  to  worse  through  the  changes 
incident  to  the  coming  of  railways,  had  in  the  late  fifties  gone 
to  Toronto  as  the  metropolitan  centre.  The  latter  with  a  fair 
capital  had  established  there  a  general  and,  subsequently,  a 
wholesale  grocery  business,  and  gradually  had  come  to  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  leading  merchants  of  that  city.  The 
business  had  in  the  natural  course  of  events  been  continued  by 
the  son,  Joseph,  whom  we  find  a  leading  merchant  and  impor- 
tant member  of  several  large  financial  corporations. 

As  Joseph  Keeler  read  on  in  these  historical  papers,  he  had 
become  yet  more  interested  in  the  list  of  names  occurring  in  an 
old  parish  register  of  the  District  and  most  so  when  he  found 
the  following: 

NEWCASTLE  DISTRICT,  U.  C. 
"May  21,  1804,  Baptized  this  day, 
"Joseph  Keeler,  son  of  Joseph  Keeler  and  Mary  Peters  Keeler." 

The  article,  proceeding,  had  gone  on  with  a  popular  account 
of  the  other  settlers  on  PresquTsle  Bay  in  Northumberland 
County,  among  whom  were  Peters,  Simpsons,  Rogers,  Wards, 
Burnhams,  Gibsons  and  others,  and  told  of  how  in  1803  a  sur- 
vey of  the  now  village  of  Brighton  had  been  made,  and  of  how 
lots  had  been  taken  up  by  a  number  of  these  people,  the  Gov- 
ernment intending  to  make  it  the  town  of  Newcastle  and  county 

1 


2  Thb  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

seat  or  the  District.  •  lie  also  found  related  many  stirring  as  well 
as  pathetic  incidents  of  the  early  days  on  the  Bay,  and,  as  he 
read,  discovered  himself  becoming  a  link  with  this  dim  past, 
but  strangely  separated  from  it  by  his  surroundings.  The 
house  had  grown  silent,  his  wife  and  daughters  having  retired; 
the  friends  they  had  been  entertaining  had  gone,  and  the  two 
older  sons  of  the  family  had  not  yet  come  in.  There,  out  of 
the  pages  before  him,  stood  his  great-grandparents.  His  great- 
grandfather had  in  1775  come  to  the  shores  of  Boston  Bay  from 
England  and  bought  state  lands  in  Massachusetts;  but,  finding 
only  war  and  confusion  had  abandoned  all,  set  out  for  Canada, 
at  length  reached  the  Richelieu  and  Montreal,  where  he  had 
become  an  active  officer  in  the  militia  during  the  American 
Revolution.  In  1793  he  had  pushed  westward  and,  after  diffi- 
cult journeyings,  had  come  with  a  party  and  taken  up  the 
Crown  grants,  which  were  given  them  as  loyalists,  on  lands  in 
Murray  and  Cramahe  Townships,  named  after  the  first 
military  governor  and  his  secretary  located  at  Quebec,  after 
the  British  occupation  in  1760.  Each  settler  brought  with  him 
such  seed  grain  and  implements  as  the  Government  agreed  to 
provide  to  all  newcomers,  during  the  first  three  years  of  settle- 
ment. The  chronicles  told,  too,  of  their  hardships  for  the  first 
few  years  of  settlement;  of  the  clearing  of  the  forest  and  build- 
ing the  log  houses,  and  waiting  for  their  first  wheat  crops;  and 
of  their  dependence  meanwhile  on  the  abounding  fish  of  the 
bays  and  creeks  and  upon  the  deer  and  other  game  of  the  forests 
and  swamps. 

All  this  strongly  contrasted  with  the  present  surroundings  of 
Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. — his  elegant  town  house,  and  his  study 
fitted  up  with  the  quiet  luxury  afforded  by  a  wealthy  city  mer- 
chant. There  was  pictured  the  heroic  old  mother  of  the  race, 
and  here  the  mother  of  his  family,  a  leader  in  society,  with  her 
two  daughters  proudly  lending  their  elegant  support  to  the 
aristocratic  head  of  the  house.  For  the  moment  Mr.  Keeler 
felt  a  sense  of  unreality  in  his  environment  and,  yet  more,  an 
association  with  that  past  of  which  his  great-grandmother  was 
the  chronicler  and  of  whom  his  father  had  told  him,  but  who 
till  now  had  been  but  an  indistinct  memory.  He  seemed  to  see 
the  old  lady  sitting  in  her  silk  dress  and  lace  cap,  rehearsing 


Halcyon  Days  on  Presqu'  Isle  Bay  3 

the  story  to  his  father's  cousin,  her  favourite  granddaughter, 
of  the  dangers  from  the  Yankee  rebels  and  from  the  Indians; 
of  the  fears  of  invasion  and  the  loss  of  her  father's  small  capital ; 
of  the  journeying  as  a  young  girl  up  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, the  tugging  at  the  ropes  by  the  line-men  on  the  shore, 
the  poling  of  the  boats,  and  the  struggling  against  the  rocks 
and  the  currents  in  the  river.  Then,  too,  she  told  of  the  night 
camps  at  the  small  landings  along  the  upper  river  reaches,  the 
passing  of  the  Thousand  Islands,  and  at  last  their  stay  at  Cat- 
araqui,  where  were  the  Land  Office  and  the  Depot  for  govern- 
ment supplies.  Their  final  trip  up  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Quinte", 
the  crossing  of  the  Carrying  Place  to  Wellers'  Bay  and  the 
final  location  on  their  allotment  beyond  the  Bay  andPresqu'- 
Isle  Point,  were  all  depicted  in  glowing,  if  homely,  language. 
As  she  told  of  those  early  years,  when  the  house  was  at  times 
without  flour  and  of  the  occasion  when  Captain  Keeler  had 
gone  with  several  others  to  the  mill  at  Napanee,  with  their 
small  grist  of  wheat,  and  were  delayed  by  stormy  wreather  and 
a  breakdown  at  the  mill,  and  of  how  during  the  weary  waiting, 
an  Indian  had  one  day  paddled  his  canoe  to  the  shore  and  asked 
for  bread,  the  grandmother's  eyes  had  filled  at  the  recollection 
of  how,  when  she  had  burst  into  tears,  telling  by  signs  as  best 
she  could  of  how  she  had  no  food,  and  her  children  were  starv- 
ing, the  Indian  had  turned  and  said,  "You  very  good  squaw," 
and  going  to  his  canoe,  tossed  a  large  salmon  onto  the  sandy 
shore  and  then  paddled  away. 

Then  came  tales  of  brightening  days,  when  there  were  larger 
clearings,  arid  the  virgin  soil  gave  abundant  crops;  when,  as  her 
boys  were  growing  up,  the  waters  of  the  lake  and  the  rice 
marshes  of  the  Bay  gave  to  their  spears  and  guns  abundant 
fish  and  game.  The  salmon  filled  the  creeks  in  spawning  time, 
and  the  waters  of  the  Bay  swarmed  with  trout  and  whitefish, 
maskinonge  and  pickerel;  the  black  duck,  the  mallard,  and  teal 
darkened  the  waters  at  early  morning,  and  in  springtime  the  sun 
was  shaded  and  the  trees  even  broken  down  by  the  flocks  of 
purple-breasted  wild  pigeons.  The  autumn  brought  in  the 
hunting  season;  the  deer,  which  sometimes  had  become  a  nui- 
sance coming  into  the  wheat-fields,  now  supplied  the  winter 
larder  with  many  a  haunch  of  venison.  The  chronicles  retold, 


4  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

too,  many  incidents  of  the  heroic  drama  of  the  War  of  1812: 
of  the  imminent  dangers  of  attack  from  American  brigs  by  se- 
cret descent  upon  the  Bay,  looked  upon  both  as  a  harbour  of 
refuge  and  a  ship-building  yard;  of  the  schooner  laden  with 
salt,  which  stranded  on  PresquTsle  Point  in  the  autumn  of  1812, 
unloading  her  cargo  on  the  sand  and,  after  consigning  it  to  the 
care  of  good  Mrs.  Captain  Sellack,  stealing  away  in  the  night; 
and  of  the  night  attack  on  a  schooner  Grandfather  Gibson  was 
building  for  his  boy — then  away  to  the  war  with  the  militia — 
by  the  notorious  Yankee  land  pirate,  Bill  Johnston,  who  ran 
out  from  Sacketts'  Harbour  in  a  fast  cutter  and,  with  muffled 
oars,  approached  the  schooner  and  set  it  on  fire,  and  was  seen 
by  the  glare  from  the  burning  ship,  hastening  away  into  the 
darkness. 

But  the  weirdest  of  all  her  stories  was  that  of  the  loss  off 
Presqu'Isle  Point  of  the  schooner  "Speedy'*  writh  all  on  board 
on  the  night  of  October  8,  1804.  In  the  winter  of  1804,  a  white 
man  back  at  Scugog  Lake  had  been  murdered  by  a  drunken 
Indian,  who,  fearing  arrest,  had  stolen  away  to  a  camp  near 
York,  but  there  was  apprehended.  There  seemed  no  doubt  of 
his  guilt,  and,  with  a  view  to  impress  the  Indians  of  his  district, 
he  was  being  taken  for  trial  from  Toronto  to  the  new  District 
town  of  Newcastle.  The  "Speedy"  had  on  board  Judge  Coch- 
rane,  Robert  Gray,  solicitor  general,  Angus  McDonnell  Esq., 
advocate,  John  Stegman,  surveyor,  Mr.  George  Gown,  Indian 
interpreter,  James  Ruggles,  Esq.,  John  Fish,  constable,  with  the 
prisoner,  and  Captain  Paxton  and  five  of  a  crew.  The  schooner 
had  started  out  from  Toronto  on  Sunday  evening,  October  7, 
with  a  brisk  northwest  wind;  had  called  in  the  morning  at 
Oshawa  to  take  on  witnesses  and  had  worked  her  way  against 
a  now  northeast  wind,  become  a  gale,  till  she  was  sighted  off 
what  is  now  Colborne  Creek,  in  the  evening  of  October  8.  Cap- 
tain Peters  and  others  fearing  for  her  hurried  away  to  the  Point 
and  built  large  fires  to  assist  the  "Speedy"  to  port;  but  she  dis- 
appeared in  the  darkness  during  the  height  of  the  storm. 
Morning  came  and  with  it  not  a  sign  of  the  schooner;  but  in  a 
day  or  two  the  water-cask  and  hen-coop  from  her  deck  drifted 
ashore  on  Wellers'  Beach. 

The  story,  tragic  as  it  was,  was  a  natural  one  and  would 


Halcyon  Days  on  Presqu'  Isle  Bay  5 

have  so  remained,  except  for  its  mysterious  sequel.  A  short 
time  before  the  tragedy,  it  had  happened  that  Captain  Sellack 
of  Presqu'  Isle  had  been  up  to  Niagara  with  a  load  of  goods 
from  Kingston  and  on  his  return  on  a  sweet  summer  day  the 
wind  was  lulled  to  a  calm,  the  sailors  lounging  about  on  deck, 
when  one  suddenly  saw  something  dark  and  strange  beneath  the 
smooth  glistening  lake  surface.  The  captain  was  apprized, 
and,  taking  the  ship's  yawl  of  the  "Lady  Murray,"  went  back 
with  the  men  and  located  a  large  rock  just  beneath  the  water. 
Next  day  he,  with  Captain  Paxton  of  the  Government  schooner 
"Speedy,"  took  boats  and,  by  the  points  taken  before,  located 
the  sunken  rock^  scarce  three  feet  beneath  the  surface,  at  some 
four  miles  out  from  shore.  The  rock  was  some  forty  feet  square 
and  strangely  had  on  every  side  some  fifty  fathoms  of  water. 
Captain  Paxton  carefully  charted  its  location  and  promised 
to  report  it  to  the  Department  at  Niagara  to  have  it  placed 
on  the  Lake  Chart. 

After  the  "Speedy"  had  disappeared  and  the  storm  subsided, 
Captain  Sellack  and  the  settlers  of  Presqu'Isle  went  out  in 
boats  to  make  search  and  grapple  about  the  sunken  rock,  seek- 
ing for  some  evidence  of  the  lost  schooner.  They  searched  the 
first  day,  but  in  vain,  for  evidence  of  either  schooner  or  rock; 
with  more  men  and  boats,  they  went  next  day  and  a  third, 
but  still  no  rock  could  be  found,  nor  has  anything  further  ever 
been  heard  regarding  the  sunken  reef.  The  story  of  the  phan- 
tom rock  could  not  be  dissociated  from  the  loss  of  the  "Speedy" 
and  became  the  basis  of  an  agitation  for  moving  the  District 
town  and  Court  House  to  Amherst,  now  Cobourg.  So  the  alert- 
ness of  old  Captain  Sellack  and  his  men  in  searching  out  the 
hidden  danger  became  the  unlucky  occasion  of  the  village  los- 
ing, what  in  those  days  was  of  so  great  importance,  the  County 
Seat. 

But  the  story  of  brighter  days  grew,  as  Mrs.  Keeler  saw  her 
sons  young  men,  going  forth  as  their  father  had  before  them, 
taking  up  new  lands  and  becoming  prominent  in  the  community. 
Settlers  arrived  in  plenty,  and  every  settlement  on  the  shore 
became  a  lake  port.  The  young  men  went  sailing  on  the  lakes, 
their  only  highway,  and  the  clearing  of  the  forest,  cutting  ships' 
masts  and  square  timber  for  export,  and  building  sawmills  for 


6  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

lumber  for  local  use,  all  became  a  part  of  those  busy  days  that 
filled  the  later  years  of  Grandmother  Keeler.  Neither  did  the 
wife  of  the  old  Loyalist  miss  telling  the  events  of  1837,  when  old 
Colonel  Williams  and  Captain  Keeler  took  boat  with  their 
militia  company  to  defend  Toronto  against  the  rebels. 

As  Mr.  Keeler  read  the  closing  words  of  the  touching  chroni- 
cle, "Those  were  halcyon  days,"  he  was  disturbed  in  his  vision 
of  that  past  by  the  sound  of  his  sons'  latchkey  in  the  hall  door, 
and  their  silent  entrance,  hoping  perhaps  the  "governor"  was 
asleep.  Finding  him  awake,  however,  they  said  good-night, 
not,  perhaps,  without  some  uncomfortable  feeling  that  it  was 
hardly  fair  that  they  should  not  give  the  home  their  occasional 
presence  on  a  Sunday  evening.  Mr.  Keeler  was  too  accustomed 
to  the  family  routine  to  have  noticed  at  any  ordinary  time  this 
occurrence;  but  the  reading  of  these  annals  of  the  past,  in  which 
his  family  had  played  so  pronounced  a  part,  had  aroused  new 
thoughts,  which  made  the  distance  between  himself  and  the 
common  interests  of  the  family  seem  to  have  grown  to  a  wide 
gulf,  and  almost  with  a  cry  of  longing  he  repeated  the  words, 
"Those  were  indeed  halcyon  days!" 


CHAPTER  II 

HIGH  ANCESTRY  OF  THE  KEELER  FAMILY 

The  Keeler  family  stood  high  in  the  general  regard  of  their 
community,  for  the  merchant  was  successful  in  his  business 
and  his  wife  in  her  social  circle.  The  latter  as  the  wife  of  a 
prominent  wholesale  merchant  of  old  standing  in  Toronto,  but 
more  especially  as  the  granddaughter  of  an  early  missionary 
and  Anglican  clergyman  of  the  Hamilton  District,  demanded 
and  with  its  usual  good  humour  society  in  some  measure 
yielded  her  that  place,  if  not  that  consideration  which  she 
deemed  due  to  herself.  Most  properly  she  was  a  member  of 
the  "Daughters  of  the  Empire  Club"  and,  indeed,  had  been 
for  two  terms  a  vice-president  of  the  local  branch — for  had  she 
not  had  pointed  out  to  her  by  some  friend  of  historical  research 
tendencies  that  the  following  was  to  be  found  in  the  old  register 
of  the  parish  church  where  once  her  grandfather  had  officiated? 

"Tuesday,  Feb.  6,  1838.  This  was  a  day  of  Public  Thanksgiving  by 
proclamation  from  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  for 
victory  obtained  over  the  rebels  in  both  Provinces  and  for  their  general 
dispersion." 

(Signed  T.  M.) 

She  had  not,  indeed,  actually  known  her  grandfather,  but 
very  naturally  believed  he  was  honored  in  having  so  high- 
spirited  a  granddaughter,  who  was  so  well  able  to  replenish 
with  luscious  fruit  the  already  productive  family  tree.  She 
might,  indeed,  have  had  ill-natured  remarks  borne  to  her,  as 
that  people  said  she  was  showy,  superficial  and  even  mercurial, 
whatever  that  might  indicate;  but  such  remarks  were  simply 
ignored,  or  endured  with  equanimity,  she  always  knowing  that 
they  came  from  persons  of  no  family  importance,  who  really 
had  no  ancestors! 

It  was  not  unnatural,  therefore,  that  her  family,  nurtured  in 
their  comfortable  home,  surrounded  with  the  generous  luxury, 
which  a  merchant  of  their  father's  standing  so  easily  made 

2  7 


8  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

possible,  should  be  fully  conscious  of  that  social  superiority, 
which  they  had  been  taught  to  believe  was  theirs.  The  two 
young  ladies  of  the  house,  after  perhaps  slightly  irregular 
school  courses  in  a  "Young  Ladies'  Seminary,"  where  any 
lack  of  scholastic  success  was  due  solely  to  the  poor  quality  of 
this  or  that  particular  teacher — not  to  the  lack  of  application 
or  capacity  in  the  pupil — had  graduated  in  turn  with  honours 
and  a  certificate  in  deportment,  the  elder  winning  a  prize  in 
art  and  the  younger  in  music.  As  the  seminary  was  exclusive 
and  most  select,  measured  by  the  high  fees  and  the  assured 
gentle  descent  of  the  lady  principal,  Madame  Keeler  was  fully 
satisfied  with  the  results,  as  a  whole.  Thereafter  two  years' 
travel  "abroad"  in  Europe  with  their  mother,  a  few  months' 
rest  in  Lausanne  for  French  and  languages  and  as  many  more 
in  Munich  for  music  and  art  had,  with  general  travel,  completed 
the  education  of  the  two  young  ladies,  who  on  their  return 
home  in  the  early  autumn,  were  duly  announced  in  the  society 
columns  amongst  the  season's  notabilities,  the  elder  especially 
as  a  debutante,  having  already  in  London  been  presented  at  a 
Drawing  Room.  Several  seasons  had  passed  since  then  and 
the  older,  Miss  Maud,  was  still  unattached — though  holding 
a  high,  even  exclusive  place  in  her  circle,  being  best  known 
perhaps  for  a  somewhat  haughty  reserve  and  a  degree  of  con- 
scious superiority — no  eligible  parti  having  yet  had  the  courage 
to  take  a  plunge  into  so  crystalline  a  stream,  whose  temperature 
was  feared  as  being  as  chilling  as  its  source.  The  younger 
daughter,  Fanny,  bore  a  family  name,  and  whether  in  speech 
or  manner  expressed  every  shade  of  that  vivacity  and  light- 
heartedness,  which  had,  and  even  yet,  marked  her  mother.  A 
general  favourite,  it  was  her  friends  who  especially  brightened 
the  social  circle  of  the  young  folks  who  frequented  the  house, 
and  who  with  their  music  and  dancing  had  not  been  slow  to 
emulate  the  paces  of  their  elders  in  the  fashionable  bridges, 
which  made  life  in  the  season  a  daily  round  of  excitement,  even 
if  rather  enervating,  to  the  vivacious  Mrs.  Keeler,  who  felt, 
however,  that  "duty  must  be  done!" 

It  seems  necessary  in  attempting  this  family  inventory  to 
add  a  word  or  two  about  the  sons  of  the  family,  John  and  Tom, 
now  young  men,  and  the  youngest,  Ernest,  a  lad  just  leaving 


High  Ancestry  of  the  Keeler  Family  9 

Upper  Canada  College.  John,  son  and  heir,  had  early  been 
set  apart  by  the  proud  mother  for  a  distinguished  career,  had 
graduated  from  Upper  Canada  College  where  he  had  shown  his 
ability,  passed  through  the  university,  residing  in  his  two 
final  years  in  his  Frat  house,  graduating  in  political  econ- 
omy and  history  with  an  average  standing.  Logically  he 
went  into  law,  and  had  been  now  for  several  years  a  junior  in 
a  large  legal  firm.  At  every  step,  life  had  been  made  easy  for 
him.  No  questions  of  personal  economics  or  of  morals  had 
ever  given  him  serious  thought  or  trouble,  and  now,  immersed 
in  club  life  and  its  duties,  he  had  drifted  along  as  a  young  man 
around  town,  generally  spoken  of  as  clever,  if  only  he  would 
apply  himself  and  not  devote  so  much  time  to  the  somewhat 
veiled  inside  of  clubdom.  His  brother,  Tom,  of  the  more  even, 
phlegmatic  type  of  his  father,  had  logically  gone  from  Upper 
Canada  College  into  the  warehouse  to  be  initiated  into  the  busi- 
ness of  which  his  father  was  properly  proud.  Tom  had  not, 
perhaps,  been  too  regular  as  to  hours  at  the  warehouse;  but  as 
he  had  to  uphold  the  honours  of  the  Argonauts  in  their  eight- 
oared  crew,  and  to  attend  assiduously  all  yacht  club  races,  such 
irregularities  were  pardonable  —  even  necessary.  Like  his 
brother,  Tom  Keeler  had  moved  naturally  and  easily  into  club 
life  and  was  generally  liked  by  everyone  as  a  splendid  young 
fellow  of  fine  physique;  but  none  accused  him  of  being  as  yet 
seriously  solicitous  about  the  firm's  welfare,  or  a  shining  star  in 
the  business  firmament  of  Front  Street.  This,  however,  every- 
one said  would  all  come  in  good  time  when  his  father  loosened 
his  hold  on  the  reins.  "Tom  was  all  right!"  Such  then  was 
the  Keeler  family  as  it  appeared  to  the  public. 


t  » 


CHAPTER  III 

HISTORY  OF  EARLY  SETTLEMENT  AT  THE  CARRYING  PLACE 

The  week  had  passed  rapidly  as  usual  for  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 
Monday  morning  had  brought  its  usual  duties  and  the  irregular 
appearance  of  the  family  at  the  breakfast  table  did  not  excite 
any  comment,  as  it  had  become  habitual,  and  in  no  way  affected 
Mr.  Keeler's  daily  routine.  It  was  not  without  some  mis- 
givings, however,  as  to  the  quality  of  his  eldest  son's  habits, 
that  Mr.  Keeler  had  noticed  his  usually  late  hours  at  night  and 
his  non-appearance  at  the  family  breakfast  table,  with  now  and 
then  later  in  the  day  displays  of  irritability,  which  could  not 
certainly  be  due  to  the  exhausting  nature  of  his  legal  duties. 

But,  once  in  his  office,  the  heavy  English  mail  drove  all 
other  matters  from  Mr.  Keeler's  thoughts.  The  short  midday 
lunch  at  his  club,  a  meeting  of  his  bank  directors  at  2.30  and  a 
later  one  of  the  Trust  Company  at  4.30  had  filled  his  day,  and 
at  5.30  he  rolled  home  in  his  auto,  the  type  of  the  successful 
city  man.  A  heavy  course  dinner  at  which  the  family,  with  a 
friend  or  two,  were  present,  as  on  full  dress  parade,  completed 
the  day's  duties  after  which  he  passed  the  evening  in  his  study, 
glancing  through  the  evening  papers  over  a  comfortable  cigar, 
and  the  last  English  Review,  thereafter  retiring  only  to  repeat 
a  similar  daily  round  throughout  the  week. 

Sunday  evening  had  come  again,  and  Joseph  Keeler  found 
himself  as  usual  in  his  study,  and  taking  up  almost  mechanically 
the  historical  volume  laid  down  a  week  before,  he  recalled 
suddenly  the  story  of  the  old  grandmother  and  the  words, 
"Those  were  indeed  halcyon  days."  He  found  the  passage 
again  and  reading  on  found  still  more  interesting  recitals  of  the 
old  days  down  in  the  Lake  Shore  Settlement. 

The  whole  territory  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Quint6  was 
redolent  of  the  stirring  scenes  of  Indian  warfare  from  Cham- 
plain's  time  onward  to  the  days  of  the  Jesuit  missions,  where 
the  very  site  of  the  old  mission  of  Wellers'  Bay  (the  four- 

11 


12  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

cornered  Baie  de  Coins)  was  on  the  Carrying  Place  at  Presqu* 
Isle.  There,  too,  were  the  remains  of  the  old  Iroquois  camping 
ground  and  their  burial  ground  at  Bald  Bluff  across  the  Bay. 
From  there  the  Sulpitian  missionaries  had  pushed  westward  to 
the  Seneca  village  up  the  shore  to  Tenagou,  now  his  home 
Toronto,  and  north  by  the  Trent,  Rice  Lake  and  the  Otonabee, 
to  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  now  vanished  Hurons,  about 
Matchedash  Bay.  To  the  Carrying  Place,  too,  came  La  Salle 
on  his  first  memorable  journey,  seeking  an  outlet  westward 
to  the  ocean,  and  there  strangely,  too,  selected  the  course,  via 
Lake  Erie,  instead  of  the  short  northerly  route,  certainly  known 
to  his  Indians,  in  his  trip  to  Michilimakinac,  fearing,  we  may 
suppose,  the  Jesuits  might  oppose  him  along  the  customary 
route.  There  he  camped  at  Kente,  the  old  Indian  village  and 
mission,  and  lent  lustre  to  its  traditions  by  his  temporary  pres- 
ence in  it.  Around  the  Bay,  the  Carrying  Place,  the  sand 
beaches  and  the  rice  marshes,  there  gradually  gathered  a  halo 
from  which  the  dim  past  grew  clearer,  and  when,  at  the  end  of 
the  PresquTsle  chronicles,  Mr.  Keeler  read  of  how  settlements 
west  of  the  Carrying  Place  grew  and  demanded  an  easy  water- 
way eastward;  of  how  a  survey  was  made  in  1794  for  a  canal 
through  Murray  township;  of  how  it  was  stated  that  from  that 
time  onward  every  member  of  Parliament  for  the  Newcastle 
District  had  been  elected  on  the  promise  of  getting  the  canal 
built,  and  when  finally  he  read  that  it  was  a  Keeler,  indeed  his 
father's  cousin,  the  Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  the  bearer  of  the  first 
family  name,  that  of  the  captain,  the  first  immigrant  and  settler 
at  the  Bay,  and  now  his  own  name,  the  whole  present  seemed 
to  have  disappeared  into  that  glamoured  time,  and  he  seemed 
to  be  living  over  again  the  lives  of  all  those  actors  in  that  old 
drama  of  the  Carrying  Place.  It  presented  the  painted  redman, 
once  on  the  warpath  now  a  kindly  neighbor,  half  assistant, 
half  dependant  of  the  early  settlers;  then  the  patient  mothers 
awaiting  the  return  of  their  heroic  husbands  now  away  down 
the  Great  Bay  for  flour  for  their  hungry  children;  again  the 
growing  of  these  lusty  settlements  with  their  alarms,  activities 
and  struggles;  pictured  the  war  of  defence,  and  later  of  organised 
government;  and  last  the  coming  of  the  immigrants  into  the 
back  settlements,  the  increasing  vessels  and  traffic  on  the  lakes, 


Early  Settlement  at  the  Carrying  Place  13 

the  building  of  the  canal,  the  coming  of  the  railway,  and  all 
the  changes  that  it  brought  with  it.  But  throughout  all  there 
remained  one  fixed  idea  of  how  close  to  each  other  in  their 
hardships,  with  their  mutual  self-help  and  common  sympathies, 
the  people  in  those  early  days  had  been;  how  near  to  primeval 
Nature,  with  her  pine  woods  and  grassy  marshes  filled  with 
game  and  fish,  and  how  intimate,  too,  with  the  Almighty  Creator 
of  those  scenes  of  pristine  beauty,  who,  nevertheless,  seemed  to 
dominate  all  with  some  infinite  and  unseen  force,  in  which  as 
in  the  loss  of  the  "Speedy"  tragic  Destiny  mocked  the  puny 
efforts  of  men. 

Musing  as  in  a  dream,  Mr.  Keeler  was  aroused,  as  usual,  by 
the  entry  of  his  sons. 


CHAPTER  IV 

JOSEPH  KEELER  VISITS  THE  HOME  OF  His  ANCESTORS 

Joseph  Keeler  was  essentially  city-bred  and,  naturally  enough, 
though  having  heard  of  his  father's  people,  had  taken  no  par- 
ticular interest  in  relatives,  the  nearest  of  whom  were  cousins 
and  country-bred.  But  now  he  had  become  charmed  by  the 
recitals  of  that  kindly  past  of  which  he  had  been  reading,  and 
began  to  feel  that  in  this  life  history  of  a  part  of  his  native 
Province  he  had  some  personal  interest.  This  was  still  more 
increased  by  the  discovery  that  it  was  his  father's  cousin,  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  who  had  taken  such  an  important  part 
in  the  development  of  his  home  district.  Perhaps,  too,  it  may 
unconsciously  have  come  to  his  mind  that  it  might  not  be 
unprofitable  even  from  a  social  standpoint  to  cultivate  his 
ancestral  relationships,  as  Barnes  Newcombe  did  the  old 
Colonel.  So  it  came  about  that  on  the  next  holiday,  which  was 
the  Queen's  birthday,  he  took  his  boy,  Ernest,  and,  telling  the 
family  he  was  going  to  Brighton  for  the  day,  went  down  on  a 
Saturday  evening  train  to  spend  the  two  holidays.  Often  as 
he  had  passed  to  Montreal  on  business,  Joseph  Keeler  had  never 
stopped  off  at  the  Bay;  so  when  on  the  Sunday  morning  they 
strolled  out  along  the  lake  beach,  pushing  their  steps  toward 
PresquTsle  Point,  an  emotion  of  delight  not  unmixed  with 
shame  came  over  the  man  (who  till  now  had  needed  no  an- 
cestors) ,  as  he  drank  in  the  beauty  of  the  scene  and  recalled  the 
memory  of  the  old  forgotten  years,  when  "They  were  indeed 
halcyon  days."  He  could  imagine  the  Bay  covered  with  wild 
fowl;  the  lines  of  seines,  where  salmon,  white  fish,  pike  and 
pickerel  weighed  down  the  nets,  supplying  abundance  for  the 
settlers,  who  had  as  yet  few  cattle  for  food. 

He  pictured  the  place  where  old  Grandfather  Gibson  was 
building  his  schooner  when  burned  by  the  Yankee  pirate  in 
1812,  and,  telling  these  old  tales  to  his  boy,  recalled  the  way- 
laying of  the  mail-carrier,  travelling  rapidly  by  land-post  from 

15 


16  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

Cataraqui  with  orders  of  importance  to  Commander  Sheaffe 
at  Niagara. 

Returning  at  noon  toward  the  village  they  beheld  a  veritable 
rim  of  orchard-bloom  on  the  hillslopes  bordering  the  glistening 
basin  of  the  Bay,  while  the  winds  wafted  the  vernal  fragrance 
of  the  pink-white  blossoms,  to  them  a  veritable  intoxication. 
At  the  hotel  the  old  proprietor,  noting  the  name  on  the  register, 
inquired  of  Mr.  Keeler  if  he  had  ever  had  friends  there,  and 
when  he  answered  that  it  was  there  that  his  great-grandfather 
had  settled  and  he  supposed  had  been  buried,  Sir  Boniface 
improved  on  his  loquacity,  and  began  to  recite  the  transmitted 
fame  of  old  Captain  Keeler  and  the  old  grandmother,  whom  he 
had  heard  of  as  the  great  story-teller  of  the  place. 

In  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Keeler  and  Ernest  strolled  to  the  cem- 
etery surrounding  the  English  Church,  and  there  found  head- 
stones with  family  names  of  more  recent  generations  of  Keelers; 
but  none  far  enough  in  the  past  to  locate  the  first  Captain 
Joseph  Keeler  and  his  wife.  Still  those  names  were  enough 
to  recall  forgotten  references  by  his  father  to  the  early  times 
on  the  Bay;  while  the  ample  grounds,  with  their  large  old- 
fashioned  houses  along  the  village  street,  were  present  memorials 
of  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  settlement  and  development  of 
Upper  Canada,  which  till  now  had  been  to  him  as  a  closed  book. 

*Returning  to  the  hotel  Mr.  Keeler  questioned  the  proprietor 
and  learned  the  location  of  the  old  Keeler  homestead;  how  it 
was  situated  west  of  the  village  and  that  the  present  farmhouse 
replaced  that  which  had  been  burned.  The  grounds,  however, 
still  showed  the  quality  of  the  place,  while  on  the  sandy  knoll 
behind  was  located  the  old  family  burying  ground  still  there. 
Boniface  gossiped  on,  but  Mr.  Keeler  found  that  with  all  his  talk- 
ativeness, his  information  did  not  reach  farther  back  in  accuracy 
than  to  those  days  when  his  father,  who  had  kept  the  old  road- 
house  in  the  coaching  days,  lamented  the  coming  of  the  railway, 
so  destructive  of  the  stage  routes  and  the  vessel  trade  at  the 
Carrying  Place.  The  next  day  Mr.  Keeler  spent  with  the  lad 
deciphering  the  few  legible  headstones  left  in  the  family  bury- 
ing plot  on  the  hill;  but  there  were  enough  in  the  tangle  of 


*  Captain  Weller  actually  did  own  the  old  road  house  and  stage-coaches. 


Joseph  Keeler  Visits  the  Home  of  his  Ancestors  17 

briar  rose  and  honeysuckle  to  tell  him  not  only  that  there, 
"The  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep"; 

but  also,  what  to  him  was  of  intense  importance,  that  there 
lay  his  forefathers.  The  strong  self-complacent  man  shed 
silent  tears  at  what  seemed  a  life-long  neglect  and  a  permitted 
sacrilege,  where  cattle  and  sheep  had  broken  through  the 
decayed  stone  wall  of  the  neglected  graveyard.  Speaking  very 
quietly  to  his  son,  Mr.  Keeler  said:  "Ernest,  we  must  find  some 
way  of  caring  for  the  graves  of  these  dear  old  folks,  who  were 
your  ancestors  as  well  as  mine."  The  lad  cried,  too,  wonder- 
ing much  at  it  all,  for  though  he  had  read  of  the  glorious  deeds 
of  soldiers  in  English  history,  and  had  been  compelled  to  learn 
the  dates  of  the  battles  of  Queenston  Heights  and  Lundy's 
Lane  and  Stony  Creek,  the  English  masters  at  Upper  Canada 
College  were  almost  as  ignorant  of,  as  they  were  indifferent  to 
the  heroic  efforts  of  either  Brock  or  De  Salabury,  who  had  held 
Canada  for  her  sons  and  the  Empire. 

In  the  afternoon  they  took  a  carriage  and  drove  around  the 
Bay  shore  road  to  near  the  Carrying  Place  and  along  the  tow- 
path  of  the  canal,  which  was  one  of  the  living  witnesses  to  the 
local  patriotism  and  endeavors  for  his  native  county  of  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  who  had  lived  and  died  in  it  and  who,  as 
he  was  to  learn  later,  had  been  financially  ground  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  mill-stone  of  new  economic  conditions 
brought  in  by  the  railways,  which  have  meant  commercial 
tragedies  in  Upper  Canada,  as  elsewhere,  which  have  wiped 
out  in  truth  thousands  of  family  names  in  the  older  border 
counties  of  early  settlement,  once  the  synonym  for  local 
progress,  commercial  integrity  and  social  success.  Of  such 
local  history,  the  sessional  papers  of  the  Legislature,  and  even 
the  portraits  of  the  halls  of  Parliament  all  tell  of  a  time  when  a 
single  name  spoke  the  glory  of  a  whole  county,  whose  where- 
abouts was  known  best  from  the  fame  of  its  representative. 


CHAPTER  V 

OFFICIAL  REPORT  TO  FAMILY  ON  PATERNAL  GENEALOGY 

When  Joseph  Keeler  returned  to  Toronto,  he  did  so  a  changed, 
re-formed  man.  Hitherto  the  family  had  mostly  counted  on  its 
descent  from  the  country  rector,  who  had  held  the  thanksgiving 
service  for  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion,  through  instructions 
from  the  lieutenant-governor,  and  had  piously  and  with  fervour 
read  the  Litany — 

"From  all  sedition,  privy  conspiracy  and  rebellion,  Good  Lord  deliver  us. ' 

If  not  in  so  many  words,  Mr.  Keeler  had  been  more  than  once 
made  to  feel  that  yet,  even  though  he  was  a  successful  wholesale 
merchant,  the  true  measure  of  the  social  family  success  had 
come  through  the  female  line  of  succession.  This  belief  was 
fully  impressed  upon  him,  especially  by  his  eldest  son  and  daugh- 
ter. The  former  was  distinctly  a  member  of  the  legal  profession, 
and  the  latter,  for  what  were  to  her  the  best  and  most  logical 
reasons,  bore  herself  like  that  other  Maud  in  Tennyson: 

"But  a  cold  clear-cut  face,  as  I  found  her  when  her  carriage  passed, 
Faultily  faultless,  icily  regular,  splendidly  null." 

She  had  been  for  a  term  or  two,  recording  secretary  to  the 
"Daughters  of  the  Empire,"  and  her  name,  more  than  once,  had 
been  seen  appended  to  resolutions  and  addresses,  breathing — 
even  redolent  of — loyalty  to  the  King,  to  the  Empire  and  to  the 
Over-Seas  Club. 

When  now  Mr.  Keeler  returned  from  the  Bay  and  Ernest 
burst  upon  the  dinner-table  with  a  highly  picturesque,  if 
slightly  exaggerated  and  inaccurate  account  of  what  they  had 
heard  and  seen  of  the  queer  old  place,  where  father's  ancestors 
were  buried,  and  of  the  canal,  which  one  of  them  had  had  built, 
the  father  felt  a  distinct  sense  of  approaching,  if  not  of  having 
wholly  arrived  on,  the  social  plane,  where  his  very  superior 
family  had  in  these  later  years,  when  his  business  success  and 
financial  standing  in  the  community  made  it  possible,  found 

19 


20  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler  9  Esq. 

themselves  so  naturally  established  and  so  generally  received  and 
accepted.  Mrs.  Keeler  now  at  once  turned  to  her  husband  and 
enquired  if  what  the  lad  had  been  chattering  about  was  correct; 
and  when  Mr.  Keeler  said  "certainly!"  she  then  wished  to  know 
if  he  had  discovered  who  these  people  were,  and  whence  they 
had  come.  Joseph  Keeler,  now  with  some  pardonable  dignity 
and  perhaps  offended  ancestral  family  pride,  said  there  was  the 
following,  which  he  had  written  on  an  envelope : 

"To  the  Memory  of  Captain  Joseph  Keeler,  born  1755  at  Upton,  England, 
arrived  in  Boston  1775,  and  settled  in  the  New  Castle  District  1794,  a  prisoner 
of  war  in  Oswego  in  1813,  and  held  till  the  end  of  the  war,  suffering  much 
for  King  and  Country.  Died  1838." 

and 

"Mary  Peters,  his  wife,  born  in  1780,  who  coming  to  Canada  with  her 
father,  Captain  Peters,  bore  with  heroic  courage  the  hardships  of  pioneer 
days,  retaining  throughout  her  long  life  a  joyous  spirit;  Who  delighted  her 
children  and  grandchildren  with  tales  of  early  dangers  and  adventures  saying 
always,  'Those  were  indeed  halcyon  days.'  Died  1850." 

At  the  end  of  this  recital  of  the  inscription  on  the  old  head- 
stone, Mrs.  Keeler  with  an  injured  air  at  once  remarked: 

"Now,  Joseph,  it  is  really  too  bad  you  have  never  told  us  this 
before,  when  you  really  are  of  such  a  good  family." 

"Well,  my  dear,"  he  replied,  blandly,  "how  could  I,  when  I 
did  not  know  myself?  And  besides,  my  dear,  you  have  always 
had  so  much  family  yourself,  there  has  not  really  been  room  for 
much  more." 

To  which  reply,  given  perhaps  with  some  intended  emphasis, 
his  elder  daughter  replied, 

"  It  is  all  very  well,  papa,  to  make  fun  of  '  family ' ;  but  you  are 
just  as  proud  of  us  and  our  mother's  ancestors  as  we  are  our- 
selves." 

Mr.  Keeler  closed  the  matter,  when  he  said  very  quietly,  look- 
ing meaningly  toward  his  eldest  son, 

"It  is  very  desirable,  my  dear,  to  have  come  of  good  families; 
but  there  is  with  it  a  great  responsibility  laid  upon  us  all  of  living 
up  to  our  privileges,  and  of  doing  things  worthy  of  our  ancestry." 

Even  the  mother  was  silent  and  the  subject  was  turned  to 
some  passing  trifle — a  rather  oppressive  silence  marking  the  rest 
of  the  dinner,  except  when  broken  by  Ernest's  rhapsodies  on  the 
apple  orchards  of  Brighton. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DISCUSSION  ON  CAUSES  OF  HIGH  PRICES,  WITH  RESULTS 

It  had  not  passed  Joseph  Keeler's  acute  observation  unno- 
ticed, that  the  old  town  of  Brighton  seemed  to  breathe  an  an- 
cient air;  that  the  age  of  the  houses,  the  appearance  of  the  stores, 
the  old  hostelry,  the  absence  of  proper  attention  to  the  streets, 
even  the  movements  of  the  people,  all  seemed  to  tell  of  a  life, 
which  had  once  been  vigorous,  energetic  and  hopeful,  but  which 
now  appeared  to  have  been  lived  and  was  old.  Similarly,  the 
f armsteadings  and  the  farms,  with  their  wealth  of  spring  verdure 
and  the  rare  beauty  of  the  scenery  of  the  hills  skirting  the  Bay, 
seemed  often  to  give  evidence  of  a  lack  of  agricultural  progress; 
while  large  fields  of  rough  pasture  land  and  wet,  undrained  areas, 
seemed  to  indicate  a  something  lacking  to  the  eyes  of  an  ener- 
getic city  man,  always  intent  upon  keeping  buildings  and  ware- 
houses as  up-to-date  as  possible.  Just  what  the  matter  was,  Mr. 
Keeler's  inexperience  of  rural  affairs  prevented  him  from  fully 
comprehending;  but  the  casual  notices  in  the  daily  papers  re- 
garding a  stationary  or  even  lessening  rural  population  came  to 
his  mind;  while  the  possible  relationship  between  these  state- 
ments and  certain  unsatisfactory,  and,  indeed,  unpleasant 
conditions  during  a  number  of  years  past,  in  the  increasing  ex- 
pense of  doing  business  in  selling  goods  throughout  Ontario,  with 
lessening  sales  in  the  smaller  towns  and  less  profits,  came  to 
assume  an  importance,  which  was  to  result  in  directing  his 
thoughts  and  actions  a  long  way  aside  from  the  pathway  which, 
during  a  long  and  busy  lifetime,  he  had  followed  with  satisfac- 
tion. 

Just  at  the  moment  when  these  matters  were  fresh  in  his  mind 
Mr.  Keeler  happened  to  be  dining  with  a  small  company  amongst 
whom  was  the  University  Professor  of  Social  Economics.  The 
table-talk  passed  from  the  general  high  cost  of  living  to  the  cause 
of  the  great  increase  in  the  cost  of  food  products.  The  usually 
ascribed  causes  were  discussed,  amongst  which  were  the  high 

21 


22  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

rentals,  too  many  in  the  real-estate  business,  too  many  middle- 
men handling  supplies,  the  high  cost  of  transportation  on  rail- 
ways, the  shiftlessness  of  the  farmer  in  not  producing  enough, 
with  the  boys  leaving  the  farm,  the  waste  through  highly  paid 
and  wretchedly  trained  cooks  and  similar  reasons,  all  more  or 
less  correct.  Joseph  Keeler  listened  intently  and  with  his  recent 
rural  observations  in  mind  said  but  little. 

The  professor  in  turn  spoke  with  academic  conviction,  while 
all  listened  reverently,  inspired  with  awe,  as  he  talked  of  chang- 
ing world  conditions,  of  how  the  early  settlers  in  Canada  had 
mostly  been  of  the  peasant  class,  too  often  of  the  pauper  and  even 
criminal  classes,  who  were  ignorant  and  content  merely  to  labour 
or  simply  to  exist.  He  recalled  how,  late  in  the  last  century, 
many  of  those  had  become  well  off;  had  grown  ambitious  for 
their  families,  sending  sons  to  college,  while  others  went  into 
towns  from  the  farm.  Though  all  this  did  seem  directly  asso- 
ciated with  the  high  cost  of  living,  yet  in  the  great  world 
processes  of  evolution,  self-culture,  social  illumination,  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  amenities  and  graces  were  all  important;  while 
the  many  conveniences  and  even  luxuries,  which  were  within  the 
reach  of  the  whole  people,  whether  in  city  or  country,  after  all 
more  than  compensated  for  what  at  times  did  seem  a  difficulty 
on  the  part  of  people  in  making  ends  meet.  In  fact,  the  time 
had  now  arrived  for  society  to  begin  to  employ  the  inferior  races; 
in  the  East,  the  Pole,  the  Finn  and  Galician;  in  the  West,  the 
Chinaman,  Jap  and  Hindoo.  Brain  must  ever  rule  over  brawn, 
and  if  only  John  Stuart  Mill's  policy  of  laissez  faire  were  allowed 
to  operate  freely  and  leave  all  these  matters  to  be  privately  set- 
tled by  "competition"  such  temporary  difficulties  would,  in  the 
end,  right  themselves.  It  had  been  remarked  concerning  this 
professor  of  practical  affairs,  born,  bred  and  educated  in  the 
Old  World,  that  he  busied  himself  with  his  teaching  duties  very 
seriously  during  the  college  term,  only  to  hie  away  in  the  spring- 
time to  English  or  Alpine  fields  from  which  he  might  study  at 
long  range  the  agricultural,  industrial  and  social  conditions  of 
the  several  Provinces  of  Canada,  extending  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
But  apart  from  his  rather  irritating  ipse  dixit,  he  was  scholarly 
and  companionable,  and  was  capable  of  becoming  interested  in 
social  problems  when  directly  set  before  him. 


Discussion  on  Causes  of  High  Prices  23 

Now  Joseph  Keeler  had  not  been  at  all  satisfied  with  the  pro- 
fessor's ponderous  platitudes,  and  was  resolved  to  go  much  more 
closely  into  the  study  of  what  had  now  become  for  him  an  ab- 
sorbing question.  Inviting  the  professor  to  spend  the  next 
Saturday  evening  with  him,  Mr.  Keeler  bade  a  general  "Good- 
night!" and  walked  home,  revolving  many  things  in  his  mind, 
like  Ulysses  by  the  loud-resounding  sea. 

With  the  next  Saturday  evening  came  the  professor  and,  set- 
tled in  a  comfortable  armchair  in  Mr.  Keeler's  study  with  a  pipe 
and  a  glass  of  some  supporting  Scotch,  he  listened  while  Mr. 
Keeler  set  before  him  certain  phases  of  the  problem  which  they 
had  been  discussing  as  they  bore  upon  commercial  affairs,  and 
told  then  of  the  series  of  incidents  that  had  taken  him  to  the  old 
town  on  Presqu'Isle  Bay,  and  the  new  light  in  which  the  whole 
problem  was  beginning  to  appear  to  himself,  as  he  read  from  the 
past  into  the  present  history  of  the  beginnings  of  settlement  and 
of  the  development  of  Upper  Canada.  He  said: 

"You  know,  professor,  I  was  a  lad  of  only  five  years  when  my 
father  left  the  old  town  down  on  the  Bay,  where  he  had  been  for 
years  with  his  father,  a  general  merchant,  supplying  the  incom- 
ing settlers  going  to  the  back  townships  with  all  kinds  of  goods 
on  credit,  and  taking  in  return  their  potash,  timber,  grain  and 
farm  produce.  His  father  before  him,  a  farmer,  had  gradually 
gone  into  business,  as,  having  been  the  son  of  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers,  he  had  grown  to  a  man  of  local  importance  and  was  con- 
sulted by  the  newcomers,  who  so  often  needed  some  temporary 
assistance,  and  could  only  pay  for  it  with  produce,  there  being 
but  little  money  in  those  times.  As  I  have  now  learned,  my 
father  was  but  one  of  a  series  of  merchants  in  those  old  lake 
ports  of  the  early  days,  which  extended  from  Cornwall  to  To- 
ronto. As  the  settlement  of  their  townships  was  only  possible 
through  these  ports,  so  up  from  each  at  every  five  to  ten  miles 
were  government  roads,  and  the  local  squabbles  of  rival  towns 
for  the  expenditure  of  public  funds  on  their  particular  roads  to 
the  back  country  were  even  more  strenuous  than  those  for  local 
railways  today. 

"In  most  of  these  larger  villages  or  towns  was  a  government 
land  agent;  but  especially  important  was  this  appointment  in 
the  district  or  county  towns,  where  were  the  registry  offices. 


24  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

Each  of  these  towns,  as  the  immigration  increased,  became  the 
centre  of  a  business  activity  in  selling  to  the  immigrants  and  in 
shipping  out  lumber  and  grain  equalling,  and  exceeding  even, 
that  of  the  growing  towns  of  our  new  Northwest  today,  since 
the  products  were  much  more  varied.  I  have,  indeed,  taken 
some  trouble  to  obtain  figures,  which  I  have  found  in  old  blue- 
books,  which  I  suppose  my  father  had  sent  him  by  his  cousin, 
the  Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  of  Northumberland  County.  From 
these  I  learn  that  when  Lord  Durham's  report  was  acted  upon 
and  Mr.  Poulett  Thomson,  afterwards  Lord  Sydenham,  got  his 
District  Councils  Act  passed  in  1841  and  a  census  taken,  the 
population  of  Upper  Canada  was  450,000.  and  the  actual  revenues 
were  but  $700,000. 

"Now  mark  what  followed.  By  1861  after  the  union  with 
Lower  Canada  as  a  legislative  union  had  existed  twenty  years, 
the  census  showed  in  1861  a  population  increase  in  Upper  Canada 
to  1,396,000,  and  a  revenue  of  $3,500,000.  But  what  further  is 
of  intense  interest  is  the  then  distribution  of  population.  The 
townships  of  Murray  and  Cramahe  in  the  Bay  district  were 
surveyed  about  1794,  and  other  lakeside  townships  westward  a 
little  later.  The  census  of  1841  gives  the  following  table,  which 
I  have  compared  with  1861  and  1911 :" 

Townships  1841  1861  1911 

Murray 3061  3612  2765 

Cramahe 3013  3841  2439 

Hamilton ..  4857  6315  3414 

Clarke 2515  6575  3375 

Haldimand 2690  6165 

Hope 3356  5883  3273 

Town  of  Cobourg 4975  5074 

Town  of  Port  Hope.  . 4162  5092 

Rear  Townships 

Seymour ._ . . .  847  3842  3331 

Percy... 726  3515  2766 

Asphodel. 551  2911  1661 

Cavan 2899  4901  2499 

Cartwright 365  2727  1584 


Discussion  on  Causes  of  High  Prices  25 

Mr.  Keeler  continued: 

"I  confess  I  was  astonished  when  I  had  carefully  examined 
these  three  sets  of  figures.  To  think,  with  a  total  population  in 
Ontario  in  1911  of  2,523,274,  and  only  450,000  in  1841,  that  the 
townships  along  the  lake  shore  had  at  this  time,  in  almost  every 
instance,  larger  populations  than  in  1911,  though  all  had  notably 
increased  in  1861,  was  something  I  never  dreamed  of.  But  the 
way  in  which  settlement  advanced  through  these  lake  ports 
before  the  railway  came  is  neatly  illustrated  by  the  figures  for 
the  rear  townships  in  1861  as  compared  with  1841.  All  had 
filled  to  overflowing,  and  yet  the  losses  in  these  townships  by 
1911  are  even  greater  than  in  those  along  the  lake  shore." 

To  the  professor,  these  figures  applied  in  detail  to  a  special 
district,  were  most  startling.  He,  of  course,  knew  of  the  depop- 
ulation of  Ireland  at  the  time  of  the  famine  of  1846,  but  he  knew 
also  that  such  was  due  to  poverty,  disease,  and  political  unrest. 
He  was  acquainted,  too,  with  the  periods  of  unusual  emigration 
from  England  and  Scotland;  but  then  these  were  caused  by 
either  commercial  depression  or  bad  land  laws.  But  how  to 
explain  a  situation  in  a  province  like  Ontario,  which  had  no  old- 
time  problems  to  solve,  where  peace  and  plenty,  so  far  as  he 
knew,  had  existed  for  many  years,  and  where  agriculture  always 
seemed  prosperous  was  to  him  quite  impossible.  The  question 
had  been  much  too  small  an  affair  for  him,  whose  studies  in  eco- 
nomics had  been  based  almost  wholly  upon  European  conditions; 
while,  as  regards  the  periodically  acute  problems  in  the  United 
States,  such  were  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  European  commercial 
questions  and  as  abnormal,  owing  to  an  enormous  mass  of  unas- 
similated  people,  and  not  governed  by  the  operation  of  ordinary 
economic  laws. 

When,  however,  Mr.  Keeler  pointed  out  that  along  with  this 
steady  lessening  of  the  rural  population,  there  was  an  equal  les- 
sening of  local  business,  measured  by  the  wholesale  dealings  of 
his  firm  and  the  wholesale  trade  generally,  and  that  he  learned 
from  the  Ontario  Bureau  of  Industry  Reports  of  the  decline  al- 
most yearly  during  the  past  ten  years  of  the  areas  in  crop  in  many 
old  counties  and  of  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  cattle  and 
sheep  and  of  less  acreage  in  wheat,  barley  and  oats  grown,  the 
professor  began  to  comprehend  that  perhaps  here  really  was  a 


£6  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

problem  quite  within  the  range  of  his  work;  while  the  more  he 
dwelt  upon  it  the  less  certain  he  was  that  he  had  up  to  this  time 
been  doing  all  his  duty  to  the  University  of  the  Province,  which 
supplied  him  with  a  secured  position,  and  which  institution 
existed  and  was  supported  for  the  very  purpose  of  giving  scholars 
like  himself  opportunities  for  tracing  existing  sociological  and 
economic  conditions  to  their  first  causes,  and  perhaps  indicating 
wherein  mistakes  had  been  made  and  how  remedies  might  be 
applied. 

The  professor  at  length  rose  up  to  say,  Goodnight!  and 
thanked  Mr.  Keeler  again  for  the  quite  new  train  of  thought  and 
study  opened  up  and  promised  to  meet  him  soon  again. 


CHAPTER  VII 

JOSEPH  KEELER,  STUDENT  OF  EARLY  CANADIAN  HISTORY 

In  the  interval,  Joseph  Keeler  had  been  busy  on  his  now  all- 
engrossing  subject.  He  took  it  to  the  club  with  him  and  at  odd 
moments,  producing  his  volume  of  figures  and  statistics,  would 
discuss  the  topic  with  his  business  friends  at  Board  meetings 
and  elsewhere.  He  devoured  every  available  scrap  of  early 
history  and  especially  of  the  District  he  had  grown  to  love  and 
look  upon  as  his  own.  He  learned  from  the  old  newspaper 
files  in  the  central  library  and  from  various  blue  books  of  the 
manner  in  which  a  group  of  English,  Irish  or  Scotch  immigrants 
would  settle  a  whole  township  in  one  year  and  of  how  in  the  next 
township  a  quite  different  class  would  come  the  year  following. 
He  became  acquainted  too  from  standard  Canadian  histories 
with  the  organization  of  the  District  Councils  by  the  Bill  of 
Lord  Sydenham  in  1841,  under  which  the  wardens  were  nomi- 
nated by  the  Governor,  and  with  the  rapid  evolution  of  county 
self-government  completed  by  the  Hon.  Robert  Baldwin's 
Municipal  Act  of  1849,  providing  for  complete  township  auton- 
omy. He  found  too  that  the  effects  of  the  long  struggle  for 
representative  institutions  had  developed  a  strength  and  sturdi- 
ness  of  thought  and  of  independent  action  in  the  people  of 
Upper  Canada,  increased  by  the  inrush  of  emigrants  from  Britain 
who  had  witnessed  the  same  fight  there,  resulting  in  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1832,  anb!  later  in  the  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1845, 
all  which  had  resulted  in  the  merging  into  one  of  the  people  here 
to  a  degree  and  with  a  rapidity  never  before  surpassed. 

Digging  yet  deeper,  Mr.  Keeler  found  a  whole  volume  of 
correspondence  containing  minutes  of  the  Legislatures  of  both 
Canadas  and  of  several  Boards  of  Trade,  which  existed  even  in 
those  early  days,  urging  that  free  entry  be  given  to  Canadian 
wheat  into  Britain  and  at  the  same  time  asking  that  American 
wheat  be  admitted  free  to  Canada  for  grinding,  but  that  it 
should  be  taxed  in  England,  thereby  supplying  a  preference 

27 


28  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

necessary,  it  was  stated,  because  of  the  cheaper  freight  via  the 
Erie  Canal  which  ran  from  Oswego  to  the  Hudson.  As  bearing 
intimately  on  this  matter,  Mr.  Keeler  found  a  letter  to  Lord 
John  Russell  dated  21st  January,  1841,  from  Lord  Sydenham 
then  Governor  of  the  Canadas.  It  stated: 

"Upper  Canada  is,  as  you  are  aware,  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  sale  of  its  agricultural  produce  and  especially  of  wheat  for 
the  production  of  which  it  is  eminently  calculated.  Great 
excitement  prevails  in  that  Province  at  the  present  time  with 
regard  to  this  subject.  The  abundant  harvest  both  here  and 
in  the  Western  States  has  greatly  increased  the  quantity  for 
exportation;  but  the  prices  are  so  low  that  the  farmers  and 
laborers  are  unable  to  derive  the  advantage  they  expected.  The 
consequence  is  that  there  is  an  outcry  raised  for  what  is  termed 
agricultural  protection  in  the  shape  of  duties  upon  the  produce 
of  the  United  States  imported  into  Canada — a  scheme,  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  observe,  which  would,  even  if  it  were  not 
objectionable  in  principle,  be  utterly  useless  to  an  importing 
country  for  the  end  sought,  namely,  to  raise  the  price;  whilst 
it  would  diminish  if  it  did  not  destroy  a  great  branch  of  trade, 
the  grinding  of  United  States  corn  admitted  into  the  Ports  of 
the  Mother  Country."* 

But  there  were  many  side-lights  which  illumined  for  Mr. 
Keeler  the  actual  situation  as  it  existed  in  those  days,  while  one 
dealing  with  matters  in  his  own  lakeshore  district  was  of  intense 
interest  to  him. 

Before  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  in  1842  the  pros  and 
cons  of  the  conflicting  claims  for  the  expenditure  of  a  grant  of 
£1,500  on  a  settlement  road  leading  from  the  lake  to  the  head  of 
Rice  lake  in  the  rear  townships  were  discussed,  the  competing 
towns  being  Cobourg  and  Port  Hope.  The  evidence  went  on, 
John  Gilchrist,  member  of  the  House,  being  called: 


*  Answers  in  committee  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  price  of  wheat  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  was  2s  9d,  on  Lake  Ontario,  3s  \%d,  that  freight 
from  Chicago  to  St.  Catharines  was  9d  per  bushel;  from  Cleveland  to  St.  Catha- 
rines 6d;  thence  to  Kingston  2rf;  from  Kingston  to  Montreal  7?d;  and  from 
Montreal  to  England  2s;  while  from  Cleveland  to  New  York  the  freight  was 
Is  Sd,  and  that  wheat  on  Lake  Erie  to  remunerate  the  owner  ought  not  to 
be  less  than  4*  ($1.00)  per  bushel. 


Student  of  Early  Canadian  History  29 

"Q.  Are  you  aware  that  Cobourg  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government?  A.  I  have  understood  so. 

"Q.  Is  not  the  trade  of  Cobourg  larger  than  from  Port  Hope? 
A.  I  think  so  and  its  being  the  District  town  compels  many 
more  persons  to  resort  to  it. 

"Q.  What  are  your  views  on  the  subject  of  Rice  Lake  navi- 
gation being  generally  used?  A.  At  present  it  costs  sixpence 
per  bushel  to  bring  produce  to  Port  Hope.  If  the  Plank  Road 
is  completed  it  will  reduce  this  to  three  pence,  by  bringing  the 
produce  to  Peterboro  and  thence  by  water  to  the  Plank  Road. 

"Q.  Do  you  think  the  periodical  fires  will  endanger  the  road 
by  the  new  route?  A.  I  have  often  seen  the  Plains  on  fire; 
it  is  not  as  formidable  as  represented.  There  are  some  farms 
on  the  Plains,  and  the  farmers  generally  run  four  furrows  round 
their  fences,  and  these  protect  them  effectually.  The  same 
precaution  would  in  my  opinion  protect  the  Road.  Answering 
the  question,  Is  the  wheat  brought  to  Peterboro  and  thence  by 
direct  route  to  Cobourg?  Gilchrist  answered:  That  there  are 
several  flouring  mills  on  the  route  where  it  may  be  ground  en 
route:  " 

Illustrating  what  were  other  difficulties  of  the  times,  Mr. 
Keeler  further  found  in  an  enquiry  about  postal  facilities  by  a 
Royal  Commission  the  following  amongst  many  other  choice 
bits.  It  is  a  letter  by  Rev.  John  Roaf,  dated  Toronto,  1840, 
in  answer  to  an  official  enquiry.  It  states: 

"A  large  portion  of  the  people  of  this  District  are  so  far  from 
Post  Offices  as  to  be  virtually  destitute  of  accommodation 
from  them.  .  .  .  Many  persons  attribute  this  not  only  to 
political  favoritism  but  to  the  contemptible  purpose  of  driving 
as  many  as  possible  to  the  shops  of  the  postmasters.  .  .  . 
Sometimes  the  English  mail  is  made  up  here  before  half  the 
city  population  is  aware  of  it;  and  if  a  person  is  a  day  or  two  late 
his  letter  may  be  eight  or  nine  weeks  in  reaching  England." 

Such  and  much  more  was  the  material  which  Joseph  Keeler 
had  ready  to  discharge  at  the  professor  at  their  next  meeting. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WHEN  UPPER    CANADA  BECAME  THE  DOMINANT  PARTNER 

It  was  several  weeks  before  Mr.  Keeler  was  able  to  arrange 
another  evening  with  his  friend,  the  professor;  but,  when  they 
next  met,  he  was  fully  prepared  with  data  wherewith  to  make  a 
very  good  exposition  of  the  commercial  conditions  of  these 
early  years  from  1840  onward,  and  found  that  his  friend,  the 
professor,  who  had  been  saturated  with  the  contents  of  standard 
works  on  the  growth  of  the  Free  Trade  cult  in  England,  pricked 
up  his  ears  and  showed  an  intense  interest  in  figures,  which  gave 
so  completely  the  prices  of  wheat  and  the  cost  of  carriage  in 
Canada  at  the  very  moment  when  Gladstone  as  under  secretary 
)f  the  Board  of  Trade  was  laboring  at  the  tariff  schedules  of 
1,200  articles,  trying  to  make  them  fit  when  they  would  not, 
and  who  was  forced  finally  in  his  desperate  task  to  advise  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  December,  1845,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  acute 
commercial  depression  and  serious  political  unrest,  associated 
with  the  poverty  and  sufferings  of  the  unemployed  in  England, 
and  the  disease  and  death  from  famine  in  Ireland,  to  burn  his 
protectionist  ships  and  in  a  single  bill  abolish  entirely  the  taxes 
on  corn  and  wheat. 

The  professor  was  just  beginning  his  education  in  a  new  field 
and,  trained  to  study,  learned  rapidly.  The  first  question  which 
naturally  occurred  to  him  to  ask  was:  "How  did  the  almost 
wholly  new  political  and  economic  situation,  developed  in  the 
United  Canadas  after  Lord  Sydenham's  efforts  toward  a  pref- 
erential treatment  of  food  imports  to  England,  affect  immigra- 
tion?" The  professor  was  amazed  at  the  information  he 
obtained. 

"From  the  census  returns  he  found  that  while  Upper  Canada 
had  increased  in  population  from  1811  thus, 

1811 77,000  1841 465,357 

1824 ....    155,000  1851 952,004 

1834.  .. 320,000 

31 


32  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

yet  the  rate  for  the  decade,  1841-1851,  was  104  per  cent.  He 
further  learned  with  surprise  that  this  rate  of  increase  exceeded 
that  in  the  most  rapidly  developing  western  state,  Ohio,  which 
had  in  1850  some  1,980,427  of  population;  but  whose  increase 
in  ten  years  had  been  only  33  per  cent,  while  what  was  even  more 
marvellous  was  that  the  wheat  acreage  of  Upper  Canada,  though 
but  seven-twelfths  that  of  Ohio,  had  raised  12,675,630,  or  16.25 
bushels  per  acre,  as  compared  with  a  total  of  14,487,351  in 
Ohio." 

The  professor  was,  however,  too  keenly  analytical  to  imagine 
that  this  remarkable  development  of  Upper  Canada  was  due 
solely  to  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which  favored  the  United 
States  equally  with  Canada,  although  the  Imperial  Parliament 
did  in  1843  put  a  protective  duty  on  wheat  coming  into  Canada 
from  the  United  States.  Very  properly  he  found  this  marvel- 
lous increase  in  population  due  to  the  choosing  by  the  unemployed 
population  of  the  Mother  country  of  emigration  as  perhaps  the 
lesser  of  two  evils, — a  forlorn  hope,  indeed,  since  it  meant  an 
ocean  voyage  often  as  long  as  two  months  under  conditions  on 
shipboard,  which  today  dare  hardly  be  recorded.  John  Morley, 
writing  of  the  situation  in  England,  says, 

"Commerce  was  languishing.  Distress  was  terrible.  Poor 
Law  rates  were  mounting  and  grants-in-aid  were  extending 
slowly  from  the  factory  districts  to  the  rural.  'Judge,'  then  said 
Peel, ' whether  we  can  with  safety  retrograde  in  manufactures/  J 

"Then  came  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in  Ireland  and  the 
famine  and  distress  attendant  upon  it,  forcing  emigrants  to  the 
United  States,  Canada  and  Australia,  to  the  number  of  1,494,786 
from  1840  to  1850  and  in  1847  alone  there  were  109,680  who 
came  to  Canada.  But  along  with  the  poverty  and  misery  of  the 
poor  emigrant  on  leaving  Britain  came  disease  and  death  in  this 
terrible  year;  the  quarantine  at  Grosse  Isle  in  the  St.  Lawrence 
saw  5,424  victims  of  ship  fever  buried,  with  physicians  and 
clergy  laid  beside  them,  while  hundreds  more  died  at  the  marine 
hospitals  at  Quebec,  and  Montreal  and  en  route  to  towns  farther 
inland.  In  1849  cholera  served  to  fill  in  the  details  of  this 
picture  of  misery,  this  being  the  year  succeeding  the  'Year  of 
Revolutions,'  when  all  Europe  was  an  armed  camp  in  ceaseless 
agitation  due  to  sudden  alarms  from  every  side.  The  decade 


When  Upper  Canada  Became  Dominant  Partner          33 


«o,n£&T3,  ..«»«oMV  J  Ireland  decreased  from  8,175,124  to 
'HHO  3?  H3j,xDNit;  while  the  efflux  from  Germany  to 

'9T6T    Zl   AJtmuBf   'pa^BQ        ,       .  .„.  ,  , 

•pasBaoaa  <dy  just  a  million  by  1850,  brought  a 

__BS    oi9 Suv    jo    luauiBjsaj,  -        i       ,      .        xl  ,          ,          , 

IBT   oqj   jo   sao;noaxa  ;ople  during  the  next  decade,  who  gave 
s   \*   smori  ,  .1       .    .        -i      P  4.1  •  • 

:vs  T  anvcf  ibour  to  the  virgin  soils  of  the  prairie 
>>  rrrrvH"^TTvr 

s  NaHdaxs  mg  fight,  and  who  perhaps  saved  the 


jitfmu  ush  of  people  to  Upper  Canada,  making 
slofjjo  Sf  p^J^lSei,  a  population  of  only  103,894  was 

SVlO1"^!  '•$«£'  dtieS>  °r  7  P6r  C6nt  °f  the  total»  then 

%'IPITHS  x?i?J5s  So^'SSJl  her  centralised  commercial  needs, 

UU0^?°ai9?B    '^nolxf  ^''  farm  alone  amounted  to  $69,129,315." 

Tao  -So^oul^s^l  res  so  far  exceeded  anything  conceived 

'  k  statistics, 

reverential 


eq;  3SUIB2B  suijBto  em  credence.     The  influx'  had  exceeded 

8UOSJ8CI      IIB     pU-B     JO     SJO^lpajO       ....  „ 

s  jo  ;uaui^;sa^  PUB  of  immigration  for  five  previous  decades 

![  9m  jo  saoinoaxa   eiu   'peuSis  _        . 

xqajaq  gj  90^0^  '  ited  States  by  over  66  per  cent.     Surely 

•  ' 


inautnSires    i        i       i  i  M  M«  •          t 

9  9q;  jo  aa^^Btu  aqi  m     clearly  demonstrate  the  possibilities  01 

• 


i  •         i          •   ,        «,i     -A      f       -I 

\  em  JQJ  PUB  ui  -BiujojiiBo^he  peninsula,  girt  with  its  fresh  water 

eqi  jo  ;anoo  aoiaadns'am  UT  •       •  i    <?  £  j   • 

c  of  primeval  forest,  fanned  in  autumn 

HOXIQ3HO    OJ.    3OIXOV  i  j»     i  *  •      •  MI          •          i      • 

^^  and  fed  from  virgin  soils  sleeping  during 


uonBonqnd  ^say  jo  oiurf^deep  calm  of  the  still  winter  whiteness, 

rn,M}siuuupy  jo?   sAauao^^v  i  i  •        ,1  •  i    ^      .1         i  •  i 

NOiHaHJtv  ^  snacwoK  vernal  sunshine  that  rich  Earth,  which 

oaa   *Aa>iaB)s  x^aqBZTia;  «?  xl_         i         r  ,        i  1-4. 

of  the  ploughman  s  share  to  make  it 

IOH.L  -a  VHVTO  u,  F.  ,       .     ,  ,   ,  , 

39031)  '.?a>iJB;g  q;aq3  wealth  of  grass  and  gram  demanded  by 


,«      ,.  ,  TT    Al         i 

ssauisnq  jo  aoBidmasses  of  English  towns.     He  thus  began 

as    pauSisaapun    aq;    saoujo.  ,  ?  , 

luaojii^o   jo   aiB^smg  of  that  immanent  Providence  which, 

3    jo    XmnoQ    'uo^ooig    jc  _  . 

loq^noo   9qi   a^isoddolierhood  of  man  and  making  them  learn 

ipJK    ^ST33     07,Z     'ox     'Suipung  TTT? 

ji)sa  'uo^brought  the  resources  of  Science  to  bear 

'NPI'c  jo  saoujo  Avc[  aq^  ^ 

•saaqonoA  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine,  pro- 

e  q}iAi       'uiaqi      ^tqtxe 

nitnerto  measureless  oceans,  and  bearing 


fu!"to  the  sea-board  over  thousands  of  miles 
^plying  a  means  by  which  the  congested 
;aoa9'L°°cities  could  escaPe  their  thraldom,  and, 


^laq?jo9?aBm  a  ons  of  famine,  whose  gaunt  forms  from 


Jj-ing  all  the  past  centuries,  stalked  across 

>    }anoD   joijodns    aq;    ui   )es  of  the  ooiintriVs  of    " 
'9i'js  'ox  ~  —  --        u    Lue  couuiriess  01 

OX    L-I  >I.LO.V 


-IB    paipn^s    Xaqi 
Saaqtuog     aq}     T 
auni  q}?-' 

UIJBJ  saaAvod  pa 


jo 


-wou   B 
uiAvpooo    'V 


SUIJBJ 


The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 


yet  the  rate  for  the  decade,  1841-1851, 
further  learned  with  surprise  that  this  r; 
that  in  the  most  rapidly  developing  wes 
had  in  1850  some  1,980,427  of  populat: 
in  ten  years  had  been  only  33  per  cent,  vi. 
marvellous  was  that  the  wheat  acreage  oi 
but  seven-twelfths  that  of  Ohio,  had  rai 
bushels  per  acre,  as  compared  with  a 
Ohio." 

The  professor  was,  however,  too  keen! 
that  this  remarkable  development  of  I 
solely  to  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  w. 
States  equally  with  Canada,  although  t 
did  in  1843  put  a  protective  duty  on  wht 
from  the  United  States.  Very  properly 
lous  increase  in  population  due  to  the  choc 
population  of  the  Mother  country  of  em 
lesser  of  two  evils, — a  forlorn  hope,  ind 
ocean  voyage  often  as  long  as  two  mont 
shipboard,  which  today  dare  hardly  be  re 
writing  of  the  situation  in  England,  say? 

"Commerce  was  languishing.  Distre 
Law  rates  were  mounting  and  grants- 
slowly  from  the  factory  districts  to  the  rui 
Peel,  'whether  we  can  with  safety  retrogr* 

"Then  came  the  failure  of  the  potato  e 
famine  and  distress  attendant  upon  it,  fo 
United  States,  Canada  and  Australia,  to  t 
from  1840  to  1850  and  in  1847  alone  th 
came  to  Canada.  But  along  with  the  po\ 
poor  emigrant  on  leaving  Britain  came  dis 
terrible  year;  the  quarantine  at  Grosse  Is 
saw  5,424  victims  of  ship  fever  buried, 
clergy  laid  beside  them,  while  hundreds  m 
hospitals  at  Quebec,  and  Montreal  and  en 
inland.  In  1849  cholera  served  to  fill  i 
picture  of  misery,  this  being  the  year  sue 
Revolutions,'  when  all  Europe  was  an  arn 
agitation  due  to  sudden  alarms  from  eve: 


J° 


qiiAV  j"»aui   saosiApB 
aqi    ^B    aauuii 

•saaoB   001    uo 

-ua^xa  Suuonpuoo  si  nBaanq  u 
aaaqAV  'auBt  s.daBus  uo  UIJBJ 
T3sy  ^B  suads  SBAV  auip 


SUIA.IBA  IUJAV 


aisau    'uu 


J 

^  IV 


Suisn   jo   siinsa-i   eM}   pa^ou  . 

0J8!cI     'X    "3.    9^U    W 

Suiunad    jo 


pa^oadsui 
'a   3° 


Xa 


uooua-njF 


AV 


-iua 
jo 
-a 


"a  puts 

iv    aSauoo 


u«a(i 


Xjunoo  gl 


in   .^^iinoo 
JOSIAPV 
Suiuaoui 

UBS 

-aAa  puB 
jo 

sXBp 


o  aoo«  do 
situ  30   SUOAT 


X  PUB 
tu  ^uads  aa 
XBpu 


OAVI    IsBd    aua 


3A>H[     Ol[AV     SJOSIApB 


umbBOf 

jo  jnc 


SUVJ 


I 


When  Upper  Canada  Became  Dominant  Partner          33 

iound  the  population  of  Ireland  decreased  from  8,175,124  to 
6,515,794,  or  20  per  cent;  while  the  efflux  from  Germany  to 
the  United  States,  already  just  a  million  by  1850,  brought  a 
sturdy  freedom-loving  people  during  the  next  decade,  who  gave 
intelligent  energy  and  labour  to  the  virgin  soils  of  the  prairie 
and  soldiers  to  the  coming  fight,  and  who  perhaps  saved  the 
Union.  With  all  this  inrush  of  people  to  Upper  Canada,  making 
a  total  of  1,396,091  by  1861,  a  population  of  only  103,894  was 
found  in  1861  in  her  five  cities,  or  7  per  cent  of  the  total,  then 
thought  adequate  for  all  her  centralised  commercial  needs, 
while  the  products  of  the  farm  alone  amounted  to  $69,129,315." 
These  astounding  figures  so  far  exceeded  anything  conceived 
by  the  professor  that,  had  they  not  been  blue-book  statistics, 
for  which  he  had  a  professional,  even  reverential  respect,  he 
could  not  have  given  them  credence.  The  influx'  had  exceeded 
the  almost  fixed  average  of  immigration  for  five  previous  decades 
of  33  per  cent  to  the  United  States  by  over  66  per  cent.  Surely 
nothing  ever  did  more  clearly  demonstrate  the  possibilities  of 
the  natural  wealth  of  the  peninsula,  girt  with  its  fresh  water 
seas,  bearing  its  wealth  of  primeval  forest,  fanned  in  autumn 
by  the  winnowing  winds  and  fed  from  virgin  soils  sleeping  during 
untold  ages  under  the  deep  calm  of  the  still  winter  whiteness, 
only  to  yield  up  to  the  vernal  sunshine  that  rich  Earth,  which 
but  required  the  touch  of  the  ploughman's  share  to  make  it 
bourgeon  forth  with  the  wealth  of  grass  and  grain  demanded  by 
the  needs  of  the  toiling  masses  of  English  towns.  He  thus  began 
to  realise  the  full  meaning  of  that  immanent  Providence  which, 
teaching  men  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  making  them  learn 
the  arts  of  Peace,  had  brought  the  resources  of  Science  to  bear 
on  the  problem  and  in  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine,  pro- 
pelling vessels  across  the  hitherto  measureless  oceans,  and  bearing 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  to  the  sea-board  over  thousands  of  miles 
by  railways,  was  supplying  a  means  by  which  the  congested 
millions  of  old-world  cities  could  escape  their  thraldom,  and, 
finding  use  for  their  energies,  were  now  to  cause  to  disappear 
those  ever-feared  demons  of  famine,  whose  gaunt  forms  from 
time  to  time  had,  during  all  the  past  centuries,  stalked  across 
the  darkened  landscapes  of  the  countries  of  the  world. 


34  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

The  two  men  grew  silent  under  the  influence  which  these  old 
figures,  speaking  from  out  past  years,  made  upon  them  and  they 
parted  for  the  evening,  each  promising  to  follow  up  the  history 
of  events  as  they  marked  the  succeeding  half  centurv. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  HEIR  OF  THE  KEELERS  UNDER  A  SOCIAL  CLOUD 

The  current  of  events  has  glided  along  more  or  less  event- 
fully  in  the  Keeler  household  since  the  evening,  some  months 
ago,  when  young  Ernest  disturbed  its  even  flow  by  telling  them 
all  of  the  greatness  of  their  paternal  ancestors.  Madam  Keeler 
has  since  then  had  at  least  one  lift  added  to  the  heels  of  her 
already  unusually  high  shoes  and  has,  perhaps,  on  very  impor- 
tant occasions  shaken  the  flounces  of  her  skirts  just  a  little  more 
pronouncedly  than  formerly  and  worn  an  aigrette  on  her  ex- 
pensive hat  somewhat  higher  even  than  its  hitherto  ample 
proportions  possessed.  Neither  has  she  neglected  to  direct  the 
conversation  on  every  convenient  occasion  to  the  absurd  way  in 
which  her  boy  had  come  home,  raving  about  what  he  and  his 
father  had  discovered  regarding  the  family  at  Brighton,  the  par- 
ticulars always  being  given  with  a  pleasing  naivete  when,  after 
arousing  curiosity,  she  complied  with  the  request  for  details. 
Even  Miss  Keeler,  who  always  maintained  with  such  dignity 
the  family  honour,  now  felt  only  the  more  justified  in  her 
pretensions  and  at  club  meetings  had  been  even  more  solic- 
itous in  advancing  the  claims  of  those  descended  from  the 
early  first  families  of  Upper  Canada  to  a  due  and  proper  consid- 
eration, and  impressed  the  young  gentlemen,  emigres  in  their 
own  eyes  from  England,  who  so  frequently  honoured  with  their 
presence  the  drawing-rooms  where  she  found  herself,  that  it  was 
these  early  emigrants  of  good  families  who  had  really  main- 
tained pure  and  undefiled  the  traditions  which  had  made 
Canada,  for  such  new-comers  as  they,  so  pleasing  a  place  to 
come  and  reside  in,  since  they  could  find  here  at  least  a  few 
of  the  graces  which  had  marked  select  society  at  home. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  the  events  had  run  most  swiftly  for 
the  son  and  heir,  John  Keeler,  during  these  past  months.  It 
had  been  almost  inevitable  that,  in  the  rushing  torrent  of  busi- 
ness development  and  speculation  in  Toronto,  he  should  have 

35 


36  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

become  involved  more  or  less  in  the  real  estate  transactions^ 
which  had  stimulated  as  well  as  followed  the  phenomenal  in- 
crease of  a  city  which  had  grown  81  per  cent  in  the  ten  years  of 
the  census,  or  from  208,000  to  376,000.  Indeed,  he  had  become 
one  of  a  syndicate  formed  a  year  or  two  previous  to  exploit  a 
suburban  farm,  lending  especially  his  family  name  as  a  guarantee 
of  stability,  but,  nevertheless,  taking  many  shares,  which  were 
to  be  paid  for  out  of  profits  from  the  sale  of  lots  in  the  rapid 
turnover  expected.  Unfortunately  the  purchase  had  been  made 
at  too  high  figures,  the  extension  of  the  radial  railway,  which 
from  inside  information  was  to  boom  the  price,  had  not  mate- 
rialised and  just  now  the  young  lawyer  was  finding  it  extremely 
difficult  to  obtain  money  to  meet  the  "calls,"  since  his  income 
as  a  junior  member  of  the  law  firm  was  not  large,  while  his  club 
expenses,  always  nearly  even  with  his  income,  did  not  allow 
him  much  ready  cash  wherewith  to  meet  such  extra  demands. 
But  what  was  more  unfortunate  was  that  John  Keeler  had  con- 
tracted a  habit.  His  former  occasional  seances  at  a  cent-a-point 
had  now  become  a  nightly  occupation  and  the  betting  at  bridge 
became  heavy  in  a  certain  clique  of  which  he  was  one,  while  his 
needs  were  making  him  plunge  more  deeply,  the  nervous  ten- 
sion preventing  him  from  maintaining  the  sang-froid  and  de- 
veloping the  touche  erudite  of  the  experienced  gambler.  It  was 
not  to  be  supposed  that  the  increasing  irregularities  of  the 
young  man,  his  restlessness  and  irritability,  could  very  long 
escape  the  acute  observation  of  his  father,  who,  while  making 
every  allowance  for  him  as  a  young  man,  understood  too  well 
that  all  such  effects  had  their  legitimate  cause.  Casual  hints  that 
better  hours  and  more  regular  attention  to  business  would  seem 
desirable  had  been  met  with  scant  respect,  and,  while  seeming 
to  result  in  some  temporary  improvement,  matters  soon  drifted 
back  into  the  old  routine,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  was  soon  to 
have  the  unfortunate  fact  brought  home  to  him  that  ancestral 
advantages  of  birth  and  good  breeding,  never,  since  the  days 
when  the  Judges  ruled  Israel  and  the  Scriptures  were  written, 
have  been  a  guarantee  against  moral  laches  and  improprieties 
of  conduct,  since  we  find  it  written,  regarding  the  sons  of  Sam- 
uel the  prophet,  "And  his  sons  walked  not  in  his  ways  but 
turned  aside  after  lucre  and  took  bribes  and  preverted  judg- 
ments." 


The  Heir  of  the  Keelers  under  a  Social  Cloud  37 

It  was  then  with  veritable  alarm  that  Mr.  Keeler  saw  in  the 
pages  of  Saturday  Night,  which  had  been  making  for  months 
onslaughts  on  the  frenzied  finance  and  real  estate  plunging  of 
Toronto  and  other  Canadian  cities,  references  to  a  club  scandal, 
which,  while  giving  no  names,  made  it  perfectly  plain  that  the 
coterie  to  which  his  son  belonged  had  gotten  into  trouble  with 
the  House  Committee,  not  perhaps  primarily  on  account  of  high 
play,  but  because  a  member  had  been  accused  of  cheating.  Of 
course  the  scandal  was  investigated  behind  closed  doors;  but 
to  Mr.  Keeler  the  yet  more  jaded  appearance  of  his  son  and  the 
hints  about  certain  young  men  made  it  quite  obvious  to  him 
that  his  son  had  been  in  some  manner  involved.  So  matters 
continued  for  a  short  time;  the  son,  while  seeming  to  be  home 
earlier  at  times,  did  not  in  any  way  assume  his  oldtime  jaunty 
manner,  but  rather  his  irritability  and  lack  of  attention  to  the 
ordinary  amenities  of  home  life  increased.  The  climax  was 
reached,  however,  when  Mr.  Keeler,  coming  home  late  from 
an  entertainment  in  his  auto,  suddenly  came  around  the  corner 
upon  his  son  in  a  maudlin  state,  his  brother,  Tom,  and  a  friend 
having  been  with  difficulty  conveying  him  home,  trusting  that 
the  house  had  as  usual  become  quiet  and  that  the  intoxicated 
young  man  could  be  slipped  into  bed  unnoticed.  Mr.  Keeler 
now  understood  and  realised  what  months  of  vague  hints  and 
dubious  appearances  meant,  and,  feeling  that  the  family  honour 
was  at  stake,  became  as  anxious  as  Tom  that  the  matter  wh'ch 
he  hoped  was  the  first  serious  aberrancy  should  be  kept  from 
the  mother  of  the  family.  His  stern  but  quiet  tone  served  in 
some  degree  to  sober  the  young  man  and,  with  Tom's  assistance, 
matters  were  arranged  so  that  the  household  remained  ignorant 
of  what  had  happened. 

Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  was  much  too  prompt  in  business  matters 
to  allow  an  affair  of  this  kind  to  be  overlooked  or  to  drift,  so 
that,  when  John  was  known  to  be  sleeping  heavily,  he  requested 
Tom  to  come  to  the  library.  The  generous,  open-hearted  brother 
came  feeling  as  if  he  were  the  culprit,  and,  while  loyalty  to  his 
brother  demanded  that  he  should  make  the  matter  appear  as 
little  serious  as  possible,  his  own  frank  nature  as  well  as  his 
knowledge  of  his  father  prevented  him  from  attempting  in  any 


38  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

way  to  deceive,  even  though  he  tried  to  palliate  his  brother's 
faults.  The  father  said: 

"Tom,  I  am  greatly  distressed.  I  have  observed  that  John 
has  for  months  been  keeping  later  and  more  irregular  hours; 
that  his  appearance  in  the  morning  has  indicated  dissipation  of 
the  night  before;  but  I  never  dreamed  that  one  of  my  sons  could 
ever  so  forget  himself  as  to  be  brought  home  intoxicated.  I 
want  to  know  how  long  this  has  been  going  on  and  whether  or 
not  there  is  any  special  cause  for  such  a  change  in  John?" 

"Father,"  said  Tom,  "I  hope  you  won't  be  too  hard  on  John; 
but  things  have  been  going  from  bad  to  worse  ever  since  John 
got  in  with  that  syndicate  bunch  in  the  Follie  Park  real-estate 
deal.  You  know  most  of  them  and,  while  some  are  very  nice 
fellows,  the  manager  who  has  little  or  no  stock  in  the  concern, 
and  Sam  Brown,  who  is  president,  have  been  playing  pretty 
sharp  lately  and  by  encouraging  play  and  its  accompaniments 
have  kept  the  crowd  as  much  as  possible  from  realising  just 
how  matters  have  been  going.  They  paid  a  long  price  for  the 
farm,  and  while  some  have  been  able  to  meet  payments,  others, 
and  John  amongst  them,  have  been  getting  farther  behind  every 
day,  and  some  have  been  foolish  enough  to  try  and  make  it  up 
by  'play'  and  others  have  just  kept  playing  because  they  did 
not  know  how  to  get  out." 

"And  to  which  lot  does  John  belong?" 

Tom  looked  at  his  father,  whose  firm,  stern  face  made  decep- 
tion impossible,  and  said : 

"You  see,  father,  John  just  played  for  sport  at  first,  and  drank 
a  little;  but  as  these  payments  became  pressing  he  had  been  so 
unaccustomed  to  such  calls  upon  him  that  it  made  him  anxious 
and  irritable  and  I  think  that  he  often  played  and  drank  more 
just  to  make  him  forget,  especially  as  the  manager  kept  telling 
him  that  when  the  season  opened  and  the  tramway  ran  past  the 
park,  the  price  of  lots  would  double." 

Again  the  father  asked,  looking  more  anxiously  if  not  more 
sternly : 

"Was  John  mixed  up  in  that  scandal,  which  Saturday  Night 
talked  about?" 

Tom's  face  paled  with  shame  and  fear  at  his  father's  question 


The  Heir  of  the  Keelers  under  a  Social  Cloud  39 

uttered  in  a  tone  almost  of  anguish,  yet  knew  that  nothing  but 
the  truth  could  suffice. 

"Yes,  father,  he  was  and,  I  am  ashamed  to  say,  John  was  the 
one  accused  of  cheating." 

Joseph  Keeler  was  as  one  who  had  been  struck  a  deadly  blow, 
for  he  turned  pale  with  shame  rather  than  anger  at  the  very 
suggestion  that  a  son  of  his  could  be  capable  of  a  dishonourable 
act.  His  voice  faltered  as  he  slowly  proceeded: 

"And  was  it  proved?" 

"  Well  father,  I  am  so  sorry  for  John,  the  committee  found 
that  he  had  acted  in  a  manner  unbecoming  a  gentleman;  but, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  said  to  have  been  intoxicated  at  the  time, 
the  club  ruling  condoned  the  offence  as  not  requiring  his  res- 
ignation, but  he  will  not  be  permitted  to  play  again  in  the  club 
for  a  year.  It  is  the  disgrace,  added  to  this  financial  trouble, 
that  has  driven  him  into  the  condition  you  have  seen  him,  sir." 

There  was  a  silence  for  some  minutes  in  the  library — for  Tom 
as  if  it  were  of  the  tomb — when  it  was  broken  by  Joseph  Keeler: 

"Tom,  my  boy,  I  need  not  say  that  this  is  a  lesson  for  you." 


r 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  PROFESSOR  AS  A  STUDENT  OF  CANADIAN  ECONOMICS 

Owing  to  the  pressure  of  business  and  the  urgency  of  distress- 
ing family  matters,  it  was  some  time  before  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler 
could  return  with  any  enthusiasm  to  the  studies,  which  had 
for  him  so  keen  an  interest.  But  the  professor  had  been  put 
on  a  keen  scent  and,  like  the  trained  hound,  ran  his  quarry  to 
earth,  so  that  when  he  again  found  himself  in  the  cosy  study  of 
the  Keeler  home,  he  was  not  long  in  taking  up  the  story  which 
Mr.  Keeler  had  brought  up  to  1850.  He  said: 

"Comparing  English  with  Canadian  historical  events,  he 
found,  while  world-wide  British  trade,  now  freed  from  the  shack- 
les of  discriminating  tariffs,  was  rapidly  recovering  from  the 
serious  depression  of  the  *  Forties,'  that  in  Canada  the  enormous 
immigration  had  created  an  era  of  land  speculation,  which  kept 
up  so  long  as  new  towns  could  be  exploited  along  the  lines  of  the 
Great  Western  Railway  now  building  from  Niagara  Falls  to 
Detroit  and  of  the  Grand  Trunk  from  Portland  to  Sarnia,  and 
as  new  townships  remained  to  be  opened  in  Perth,  Huron  and 
Grey.  Labour,  with  the  employment  of  the  large  number  of 
immigrants  in  railway  building,  remained  high,  and  all  prices 
were  made  still  more  exorbitant  during  the  two  years,  1854- 
1856,  of  the  Russian  war,  in  which  the  wheat  supplies  of  Russia 
were  suddenly  cut  off  from  the  millions  of  needy  mouths  of 
Britain's  work-people,  making  wheat  in  Canada  and  the  neigh- 
boring States  rise  to  $2.50  per  bushel.  Nevertheless  the  crisis 
was  rapidly  approaching  which  was  to  so  lessen  Canadian  credit 
that  a  period  of  extreme  depression  was  created,  lighted  only 
by  occasional  sunshine,  which  was  to  last  for  forty  years.  He 
found  that  towns  had  been  laid  out  in  the  Queen's  Bush  even 
and  sales  held  in  the  nearest  town  of  Guelph  on  the  marketplace 
where  marquees  were  erected  and  liquors,  even  champagne, 
flowed  like  water,  while  the  mad  orgy  of  trading  in  ephemeral 
values  went  on.  The  American  railways,  having  once  reached 

41 


42  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

the  Great  Lakes,  continued  skirting  the  southern  shores  and 
even  pushing  into  every  state  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Large 
land  grants  were  given  to  railway  promoters,  and  in  Britain, 
Germany  and  Sweden  their  agents  were  scouring  every  district  to 
secure  immigrants  to  their  lands,  thereby  to  repair  the  damages 
of  the  financial  collapse  which  had  followed  the  Peace  of  Paris, 
1856.  He  found  too  that  immigration  had  become  the  commer- 
cial barometer  in  America,  instead  of  the  price  of  wheat  as  used 
to  be  in  England,  as  seen  in  the  figures  for  these  succeeding 
years.  Thus  the  immigrants  for  different  years  were: 

United  States  Upper  Canada 

1851 267,357  42,605 

1852 .  244,261  38,873 

1853 230,885  34,522 

1854 .  193,065  43,761 

1855 103,414  17,966 

1856 111,837  16,378 

1857 126,905  21,001 

1858 59,716  9,704 

1859 70,303  6,689 

1860 119,928  9,786 

"  But  he  found  that  another  and  wholly  different  set  of  forces 
were  now  to  affect  the  normal  progress  of  commercial  develop- 
ment in  the  United  States  and  to  react  disastrously  upon  Canada, 
which  for  a  moment  was  the  seeming  temporary  gainer  by  the 
Civil  War,  which  broke  out  in  1861.  North  had  met  South  in 
fratricidal  conflict  and  the  energies  of  a  nation  of  32,000,000 
were  engaged  in  the  most  sanguinary  war  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  For  the  moment  immigration  to  the  States  fell  in 
1862  to  64,191;  but  this  did  not  react  favourably  upon  Canada 
which  had  only  12,717  in  that  year.  The  depression  in  business 
already  following  over-speculation  in  railways  in  the  United 
States  had  encouraged  that  government  to  enter  into  a  reciproc- 
ity agreement  in  1854  for  ten  years  with  Canada,  which  was 
henceforth  to  become  a  doorway  to  the  Northern  States,  and 
horses  sold  at  high  prices  and  food  supplies  of  every  kind  found 
free  access  and  at  favourable  returns  during  the  four  exhaust- 
ing years  which  followed.  In  spite  of  the  war,  however,  the 
immigration  to  the  States  rose  to  191,114  in  1864;  remained  at 


Student  of  Canadian  Economics  43 

that  until  after  the  North  was  victorious  when  it  at  once  in- 
creased to  332,577  in  1867.  While,  however,  the  local  trade  of 
Canada  seemed  for  the  moment  prosperous  in  these  years,  polit- 
ical ferment  between  the  opposing  provinces,  accentuated  by 
racial  and  religious  mistrust  between  the  two  dominant  races  in 
the  United  Canadas,  made  any  progressive  movement  towards 
national  development  impossible.  The  year  1864  saw  the 
Reciprocity  Treaty  abrogated;  while  the  one  bright  gleam  of 
national  hope,  which  shone  with  the  crowning  Act  of  Confed- 
eration in  1867,  came  too  late  in  any  way  to  counter-balance 
the  glorious  sense  of  power  and  national  resourcefulness  felt  by 
the  victorious  Northern  States.  Canada  was  forgotten,  when  a 
triumphant  people,  now  nearly  40,000,000,  turned  the  energies 
of  millions  of  disbanded  soldiers  back  into  the  walks  of  peace. 
The  railways,  already  wide-spread,  were  pushed  westward  from 
the  standpoint  both  of  national  security  and  unity  and  of 
commercial  development,  and  1869  saw  a  railway  uniting  with 
iron  bands  the  people  and  destinies  of  a  whole  continent  be- 
tween two  oceans  and  gave  a  nation,  who  had  fought  to  be  free, 
an  intrinsic  sense  of  ability  to  dare  to  do  and  accomplish,  aided 
by  the  telegraph  and  steam  engine, — the  necromancers  of  the 
modern  world — deeds  in  peace  never  imagined,  much  less 
equalled  elsewhere.  A  nation  had  found  its  soul  and  its  spiritual 
essence  blossomed  forth  in  works  of  material  accomplishment, 
which,  however  crude,  illustrated  the  spirit  of  their  Viking 
ancestors  of  a  thousand  years  before." 

All  this  the  professor  now  read  into  the  cold  facts  of  history 
and  turning  his  eyes  upon  puny  Canada  beheld  a  series  of  dis- 
connected provinces  with  no  sense  of  unity,  no  common  interests, 
no  trustful  spirit,  no  conscious  hope.  The  most  promised  for 
the  darksome  future  was  that  the  Confederation  Act  contained 
a  clause  providing  for  the  building  of  the  Intercolonial  Railroad 
from  Canada  to  the  sea  at  Halifax  and  to  this  end  a  loan  of 
£3,000,000  was  guaranteed  by  the  British  Government.  The 
professor  had  already  seen  that  immigration  had  almost  ceased; 
he  learned  from  the  Committee  of  Agriculture  of  the  Legisla- 
ture in  1859  that  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway,  built  with  the 
money  of  English  bondholders,  had  had  its  agents  in  Germany 
and  Sweden,  booking  passengers  for  the  longest  haul  to  Chicago 


44  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

and  the  West,  and  found  it  stated  that  of  the  few  who  entered 
as  immigrants  at  Quebec,  almost  none  stayed  in  Canada.  He 
now  understood  upon  what  basis  continental  expansion  de- 
pended: viz.,  that  of  virgin  land  for  cultivation  of  wheat,  and  as 
yet  Canada  had  no  western  territories.  Committees  of  the  Leg- 
islature had  had  Simon  Dawson,  the  explorer,  and  others  tell 
them  of  the  Lone  Land  beyond  the  Great  Lakes,  behind  the 
rock-ribbed  interminable  areas  of  spruce  forests  and  deep- 
basined  water  stretches  of  the  western  Laurentians.  These 
travellers  told  of  a  land  of  black,  deep  soil,  where  the  common 
crops  of  the  East  might  grow;  but  which  now  was  the  home  of 
Indian  tribes  and  a  few  scattered  half-breed  settlements,  some 
English  but  mostly  French,  but  all  tied  to  the  chariot  wheels 
— or  canoe  sterns — of  the  Great  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

Such  was  the  story  which,  as  it  increased  in  volume,  grew  in 
intensity  of  interest  with  the  telling  of  the  professor,  who,  proud 
of  his  researches,  yet  with  a  new-found  sympathy,  told  it  with 
growing  emphasis  as  he  paced  the  floor  before  his  friend  whom 
he  held  spellbound  with  his  eloquent  periods.  Becoming  con- 
scious of  being  entrapped  into  an  unwonted  enthusiasm,  he  said: 

"But,  Mr.  Keeler,  I  have  been  doing  all  the  talking  and  have 
been  telling  what  to  you  are  commonplaces  and  matters  of  your 
own  experience." 

"No,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "I  am  sincerely  grateful  to 
you,  for  you  have  condensed,  what  it  is  quite  true  I  have  known 
but  never  apprehended  in  its  full  meaning,  the  history  of  a  period 
which  is  the  length  almost  of  my  whole  life,  into  a  living  picture, 
which,  as  you  recall  its  details,  enables  me  to  see  the  very  actors 
in  it  come  upon  the  stage  and  play  their  parts  as  in  a  kinemat- 
ograph,  and  I  shall  ever  thank  you  for  having  worked  into  the 
very  texture  of  the  series  of  pictures  scenes  which  make  a  veri- 
table drama  of  the  history  of  Canada  as  I  have  known  it.  There 
are,  of  course,  dozens  of  personal  experiences  which  I  can  give 
you  of  the  events  of  those  two  decades  which  you  have  illumi- 
nated so  well;  but,  in  essence  you  have  given  the  history." 

The  professor  said,  "How  dearly  I  would  like  to  hear  some 
of  them  from  you!  " 

"Well,  you  will  remember,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "I  was  but  a 
child  when  the  American  war  began  and  the  first  thing  I  recall 


Student  of  Canadian  Economics  45 

is  the  excitement  in  Canada  over  the  Trent  affair,  when  every- 
where they  began  to  form  volunteer  companies  and  start  drilling. 
Of  course  I  knew  nothing  of  what  it  meant;  but  I  remember  well 
the  great  Review  as  early  as  1862  when  some  5,000  troops  were 
assembled  on  the  Garrison  Common,  and  when  the  Thirteenth 
Hussars  and  the  Rifle  Brigade  and  batteries  of  artillery  marched 
and  countermarched  and  skirmished  all  day,  having  associated 
with  them  our  own  Queen's  Own  and  Grenadiers.  I  was  so 
anxious  to  get  near  the  horsemen  as  they  marched  off  the  field 
that  I  found  myself  running  along  holding  on  to  the  stirrup  of  a 
Hussar  who  talked  to  and  petted  me;  but  I  finally  got  lost  in  the 
crowd  and  was  found  crying  by  one  who  knew  my  father  and 
took  me  home.  After  that,  every  boy  at  school  was  a  soldier, 
and  we  boys  formed  a  company  and  got  our  mothers  to  make  us 
red  jackets  trimmed  with  white  braid,  black  forage  caps  with  a 
white  band,  and  black  trousers  with  a  broad  white  stripe  down 
them.  We  cut  and  planed  blocks  of  wood,  painted  them  black 
and  put  them  on  black  polished  belts  for  cartridge  boxes  and 
even  cut  heavy  blocks  of  wood  and  strapped  them  on  as  knap- 
sacks. On  a  Saturday,  more  than  once  our  squad  of  boys 
assembled  early  at  one  end  of  the  street,  got  the  smaller  boys 
hitched  to  our  play  wagons,  loaded  with  sheets,  blankets  and 
clothes-horses  borrowed  from  our  mothers  and  marched  in  fine 
form  to  a  vacant  lot,  where  we  bivouaced  for  the  day;  took  our 
tin  pails  and  boiled  potatoes  and  fried  eggs  and  meat  in  our 
borrowed  spiders;  had  the  parade  and  sham  fight  after  dinner 
and  marched  home,  tired  and  cross  perhaps,  but  saturated  with 
the  military  enthusiasm  of  the  time.  We  went  further  even  and 
became  attached  to  a  company  whose  drill  quarters  were  nearby, 
and  they  bought  fifes  and  drums  for  us  and,  except  on  official 
parades,  we  were  the  band  to  march  out  with  them.  You  could 
not  know  what  it  meant,  for,  toward  the  latter  part  of  the  war, 
there  were  a  lot  of  disreputable  Irish  soldiers  across  the  Line 
who  stimulated  the  old  antagonism  to  Great  Britain  amongst 
the  Americans,  made  the  more  acute  by  the  Trent  affair,  and 
the  more  or  less  openly  expressed  sympathy  of  certain  British 
papers  for  the  South.  Their  emissaries  came  to  Canada,  and 
stirred  up  a  disaffection,  which,  perhaps  never  very  serious, 
caused  reports  of  secret  drillings  and  the  hiding  of  thousands  of 


46  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

stands-of-arms,  and  preparations  at  a  signal  for  a  rising  assisted 
by  Fenian  invaders  from  the  South  to  wrest  Canada  from  per- 
fidious Albion.  The  times  were  full  of  terrors  for  the  young 
and  excitement  for  those  older.  I  remember  well  looking  over 
my  father's  shoulder  as  he  read  aloud  from  his  daily  paper  the 
account  of  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  and  recall  the 
still  more  serious  affair  of  the  Fenian  Raid  at  Fort  Erie. 

"All  of  us  boys  went  to  see  the  Queen's  Own  embark  for  Port 
Dalhousie  on  June  1,  1866,  and  we  waited  in  breathless  excite- 
ment for  news  of  the  fight  which  all  the  next  day  was  taking 
place  at  Ridgeway.  Then  too  we  followed  with  the  crowd  on 
the  Monday  after,  when  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  landed  at  Yonge 
Street  Wharf,  were  given  a  military  funeral,  and  especially  do  I 
remember  the  names  of  the  men  of  Company  K,  your  old  Var- 
sity Company,  McKenzie,  Mewburn  and  Tempest,  who  were 
killed  out  of  a  total  of  forty  in  a  few  minutes  in  the  Limeridge 
part  of  the  fight,  and  recall  dear  old  Professor  Vander  who, 
though  badly  wounded,  is  I  still  see  on  deck  in  the  University. 

"Of  course  I  joined  the  Cadet  Company  at  Upper  Canada 
College,  when  old  enough,  and  later  recall  how  the  martial 
spirit  stayed  with  us  when  one  summer  three  of  my  Form  stole 
away  and  enlisted  in  the  Queen's  Own  to  go  to  Niagara  Camp 
and  of  old  Principal  Cockburn's  translation  of  the  Horatian 
couplet  as  he  satirically  spoke  of  the  runaways : 

"'Duke  et  decorum  est,  pro  patria  mori,'" 

"'How  sweet  and  fine  a  thing  it  is  to  eat  a  mutton  pie/" 

"We  did  not  know  then — none  in  Canada  knew — that  out 
of  this  temporary  ebullition  of  traditional  Hibernian  dislike 
for  the  Anglo-Saxon,  or,  perhaps,  more  really  owing  to  the  ab- 
sence of  any  occupation  for  the  moment  for  disbanded  soldiers, 
was  transmuted  much  more  rapidly  than  in  any  other  way 
possible  into  a  sturdy  Canadian  spirit,  the  various  opposing 
elements  of  the  West  and  the  East.'" 


CHAPTER  XI 

JOSEPH  KEELER  RECALLS  COMMERCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  EVENTS 
OF  FORTY  YEARS 

The  events  of  the  years  following  1870  were  deeply  stamped 
upon  the  memory  of  Joseph  Keeler,  for  it  was  in  1873  that  he 
was  brought,  as  a  young  man  in  his  father's  warehouse,  face  to 
face  with  one  of  the  longest  periods  of  business  depression, 
which  Canada  had  known.  So  it  was  easy  for  him  to  give,  as 
he  did  at  their  next  meeting,  details  to  the  professor  covering 
the  crisis,  which  was  a  sequence  to  the  financial  collapse  follow- 
ing the  Black  Friday,  18th  of  September,  1873,  in  New  York, 
when  the  Jay  Cook  Company  was  forced  to  close  the  doors  of  its 
broking  and  banking  house,  while  having  $4,000,000  on  deposit 
and  holding  $15,000,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railway.  Many  thousand  miles  of  railway  had  been  built 
during  the  previous  ten  years,  enormous  subsidies  by  the  Federal 
Government  from  $16,000  to  even  $48,000  per  mile  on  the  moun- 
tain sections  had  been  advanced  to  the  Credit  Mobilier,  which 
financed  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  to  San  Francisco;  while 
the  total  expenditures  on  railways  for  these  years  was  $1,700,- 
000,000.  He  said: 

"The  people  of  the  United  States  had  been  alarmed,  if  not 
shocked,  at  the  revelations  of  too  close  relations  between  sena- 
tors and  members  of  the  House  and  the  Credit  Mobilier,  so  that 
the  orgy  of  speculation  and  of  railway  building,  without  as  yet 
receipts  from  the  traffic,  as  their  lands  were  not  widely  settled, 
came  to  a  logical  end,  as  all  debauches  must,  and  the  breaking 
of  the  banks  of  financiers,  the  breaking  of  the  hearts  of  widows 
and  the  breaking  of  the  brains  of  thousands  of  overwrought 
business  men  all  came  together.  And  the  pity  of  it  all  was  that 
the  panic  did  not  remain  south  of  the  line.  Canada  was  poor 
but,  nevertheless,  the  fever  of  railway  promoting  was  in  the  air. 
Then  were  planned  and  partly  constructed  the  Canada  South- 
ern and  Airline  railways  across  the  Lake  Erie  peninsula,  as  well 

47 


48  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

as  the  Wellington,  Grey  and  Bruce  and  Credit  Valley  roads; 
while  a  Government  went  out  of  power  due  to  suspicions  of  an 
improper  intimacy  between  its  members  and  a  company  pro- 
moting the  great  national  enterprise,  the  Pacific  railway,  which 
was  to  connect  coast  with  coast,  and  ultimately  to  prove  even 
a  greater  bond,  because  it  was  so  much  more  necessary,  to  bridge 
over  the  great  gap  of  wilderness  between  Ontario  and  the  West. 
"But  this  was  not  yet  to  be.  The  method  later  proposed  of 
building  it  in  sections,  part  waterways  and  part  railways,  how- 
ever in  keeping  with  the  financial  resources  of  the  country  at 
that  time,  was  wholly  inadequate  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of 
the  situation,  and  from  1872  to  1882  commercial  stagnation 
marked  Canada  to  a  degree  before  unparalleled,  and  the  migra- 
tion of  Canadians  across  the  border  rose  to  such  figures  as  had 
never  before  been  equalled,  as  seen  in  the  following  list  of  yearly 
emigrants  from  Canada  into  the  United  States : 

Emigrants  from  Canada  to  United  States 

1870 40,411  1877 22,116. 

1871 47,082  1878 25,568 

1872 40,176  1879 31,268 

1873. 37,871  1880 99,706 

1874,- 32,960  1881 125,391 

1875 24,651  1882 92,295 

1876 22,471 

"So  remarkable,  however,  did  the  trade  revival  in  the  United 
States  become  after  the  five  years'  depression  from  1873  to  1878, 
that,  while  the  total  immigration  to  that  country  in  1878  was 
only  138,000,  it  rose  in  1880  to  347,000  while  that  from  Canada 
to  the  United  States  multiplied  three  times  within  three  years. 
This  stream,  whose  flow  had  lessened  during  the  five  years  fol- 
lowing the  1873  panic,  had  risen  to  its  height  in  1881,  to  decline 
again  only  for  a  time  after  this,  when  the  outlet  to  Manitoba 
through  Minnesota  had  been  found. 

"I  fancy,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "that  the  real  extent  and  mean- 
ing of  this  depopulation,  as  it  actually  existed  then,  was  not 
known  even  to  the  public  and  business  men  of  that  time,  and  it 
has  needed  a  decade  of  expansion  such  as  that  of  the  past  ten 
years  for  them  in  any  degree  accurately  to  estimate  or  compre- 
hend the  strength  of  the  centripetal  forces,  which  the  churn- 


Commercial  and  Political  Events  of  Forty  Years  49 

ing  of  the  immigration  ocean  by  the  great  American  octopus 
created  during  those  many  years,  causing  the  people  from  every 
country  and  beyond  all  from  its  neighbor  Canada  to  be  drawn 
within  the  reach  of  its  tentacles  and  to  be  slowly  swallowed  up 
to  the  number  of  over  2,000,000  by  1900  from  Canada  alone." 

It  would  have  been  hard,  indeed,  for  the  professor  to  appre- 
ciate the  full  meaning  of  this  tragic  recital,  had  he  not  lived  in 
Canada  during  the  decade  of  1890-1900,  and  been  an  inter- 
ested witness  of  the  enormous  development  during  the  succeed- 
ing decade.  He  recalled  to  Mr.  Keeler  how  he  had  come  to 
Canada  in  time  to  witness  the  third  strange  political  agitation, 
which  like  those  of  1837  and  1849,  had  for  its  object  closer,  even 
political,  relations  with  the  United  States.  Its  cry  "Commer- 
cial Union"  had  originated  in  New  York  with  two  ci-devant 
Canadians,  Wyman  and  Glenn,  and  in  Canada  was  fostered  by 
that  literary  giant,  but  political  enigma,  Professor  Goldwin 
Smith.  Supported  by  a  newspaper,  financed  and  edited  by  men, 
previously  conservatives,  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  a  move- 
ment, which  appealed  especially  to  the  opponents  of  high 
tariffs  in  both  countries,  owing  to  the  melancholy  results  com- 
mercially of  the  decade,  which  had  opened  with  a  blare  of  trum- 
pets, regarding  what  the  new  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  begun 
in  1881  was  to  do  in  opening  up  the  Great  West.  Its  first 
through  train  to  the  Coast,  leaving  Montreal,  June  24,  1886, 
was  indeed  an  impetus  to  western  settlement;  but  there  had 
been  already  dissatisfaction  over  the  land  laws  in  the  West. 
Indeed  the  Half -Breed  rebellion  of  1885  grew  out  of  this;  while 
time,  under  the  best  of  conditions,  was  needed  to  overcome  the 
prejudice  against  the  country  and  its  climate,  where  plagues 
of  locusts  had  occurred  as  recently  as  1875  and  frosts  had  not 
infrequently  injured  the  wheat  and  droughts  had  occurred  as 
late  as  1886.  .  .  . 

Mr.  Keeler  here  broke  in : 

"As  I  look  back  on  those  seemingly  so  hopeless  days  for 
Canada  and  find  from  the  blue  book  returns  that  not  only  did 
the  population  not  increase  through  immigration  to  any  notable 
extent,  but  further  that  we  actually  were  short  in  our  total  popu- 
lation in  1891  by  120,000  of  what  we  should  have  had,  had  we 
retained  our  natural  increase  for  the  ten  years,  I  wonder  why 


50  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

we  all  did  not  lose  faith  entirely  in  our  future.  Only  think  of  it, 
the  aggregate  foreign  trade  of  all  Canada  in  1889  as  compared 
with  1881  had  increased  by  only  $400,000  while  that  for  the 
dreary  years  from  1870-1880  had  even  increased  by  $4,000,000. 

"The  nadir  was  reached  when  a  financial  crisis,  beginning 
in  the  United  States  in  1890,  reached  its  height  in  1893.  This 
hopelessness  is  perhaps  not  greatly  to  be  wondered  at  when, 
although  trade  slowly  improved  after  1893,  the  export  price  of 
wheat  from  1891  to  1896  rose  only  once  to  80  cents  per  bushel, 
and  fell  in  1896  actually  to  58  cents,  while  that  of  potatoes  for 
the  same  period  rose  but  once  to  50  cents  and  averaged  as  low 
as  38  cents  per  bushel.  There  seemed  but  one  adequate  explana- 
tion for  this  whole  situation,  so  directly  affecting  not  alone  the 
growth  of  the  Canadian  West,  but  even  more  that  of  the  old 
Lake  shore  counties  of  my  native  district,  and  this  was  the 
extraordinary  development  of  the  Western  American  States. 

"I  find  for  instance  that  to  the  twelve  North  Central  States 
during  1880-1890  there  was  an  immigration  of  1,143,285,  which, 
however,  was  less  than  the  percentage  increase  for  the  same 
states  from  1870  to  1880.  But  it  made  a  total  population  for 
this  area  of  22,410,417  in  1890,  which  had  increased  by  1900 
to  26,330,000  of  whom  48  per  cent  were  foreign  born,  over 
2,000,000  being  Canadians. 

"Remember  too  that  while  this  caused  an  enormous  growth 
in  Chicago,  and  some  of  the  western  urban  centres,  it  meant 
also  an  increase  in  the  farms  of  this  central  western  area  from 
1,000,000  in  1870  to  2,000,000  in  round  numbers  in  1890.  But 
that  there  was  a  limit  to  the  available  land  there  is  shown  in 
the  fact  that  the  increase  in  farms  from  1870  to  1880  was  50 
per  cent,  while  between  1890  and  1900  it  was  only  14  per  cent. 

"You  see  then,  professor,"  continued  Mr.  Keeler,  "when 
these  several  elements  of  our  problem  are  brought  together 
that  they  present  a  group  of  conditions  in  some  degree  helping 
to  its  solution,  and  we  thus  find  in  Ontario  and  the  older 
provinces  only  an  accentuation  of  the  process,  which  went  on 
in  the  old  Eastern  States  for  several  decades;  with  this  distinc- 
tion, however,  that  while  the  whole  of  old  Canada  was  for  forty 
years  being  drained  of  her  population,  the  westward  movement 
at  any  rate  kept  the  old  New  England  population  within  their 


Commercial  and  Political  Events  of  Forty  Years  51 

own  country.  Doubtless  it  is  a  movement  similar  to  this  which 
may  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  general  depression  and  seeming 
agricultural  retrogression  in  the  old  district  down  on  Presqu'- 
Isle  Bay;  but  the  subject,  now  that  we  have  really  begun  to 
investigate  it  historically,  is  becoming  of  absorbing  interest  and 
I  hope  we  together  may  determine  in  what  direction  this  most 
serious  condition,  affecting  the  welfare  of  our  old  Province 
should  best  turn  the  energies  of  her  people." 

The  business-like  grouping  of  commercial  and  historical  facts 
made  by  the  man  of  affairs  was  a  source  of  intense  admiration 
to  the  professor,  who  remarked  in  rising  to  go : 

"Well,  Mr.  Keeler,  it  is  once  more  the  proof  of  the  old  scien- 
tific adage  experientia  docet,  which  we  now  translate  into  'It  is 
necessary  to  experiment  in  order  to  learn,'  and  certainly  you 
old  Canadians  must  have  had  either  great  faith  for  forty  years 
in  your  future  or  an  intense  patriotism  like  that  of  the  Tyrolese 
or  Swiss  for  their  mountain  glens  to  resist  the  loadstone  of  com- 
mercial advantages  and  large  business  attractions,  which  you 
have  so  well  illustrated  in  this  picture  of  the  growth  of  the  Amer- 
ican West.  But  it  does  seem,  as  you  say,  as  if  the  Old  East  in 
Canada  is  today  having  the  same  depleting  process  repeated, 
and  I  wonder  if  there  is  to  be  a  forty  years'  further  drain  on 
these  old  provinces,  which  have  supplied  the  very  essentials  not 
only  of  men,  the  primary  condition  to  development,  but  also 
of  the  intellectual,  social  and  political  elements  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  West.  We  must  study  this  further.  Goodnight!" 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  EXIT  OF  JOHN  KEELER  FROM  FRENZIED  FINANCE 

It  was  several  months  since  the  first  shadow  came  over  the 
Keeler  house,  and  unfortunately  it  had  remained  there.  Mr. 
Keeler  had  hoped  that  the  lesson  which  had  come  to  his  eldest 
son  would  have  proved  salutary;  but  the  young  man's  personal 
pride  was  hurt — the  lesson  had  not  reached  his  conscience.  He 
placed  the  blame  of  his  fall  upon  others  rather  than  openly  and 
frankly  going  to  his  father  and  saying  "I  have  sinned."  As  usual 
in  such  cases,  the  spiritual  in  the  man  being  in  abeyance,  the  phy- 
sical dominated  the  actions  of  John  Keeler,  and  instead  of  turning 
over  a  new  leaf,  he  went  about  in  a  sullen  mood,  avoided  the 
family  circle  and,  instead  of  improving  his  nervous  tone,  was 
quite  evidently  indulging  secretly  in  what  had  now  become  in  his 
unhealthy  opinion,  a  physical  necessity.  He  did  not  abandon  his 
club  entirely,  for  that  would  have  been  to  confess  his  fault;  but 
he  went  elsewhere  and  made  associates  of  others,  who,  like  him- 
self, had  fallen  into  irregular  habits.  This,  of  course,  Mr.  Keeler 
came  to  know  through  Tom  and,  instead  of  John  Keeler  appre- 
ciating the  delicacy  of  his  father's  treatment  of  him  hitherto,  he 
chose  to  wear  an  air  of  injured  independence,  which  made  it 
impossible  for  any  frank  approach  from  either  side. 

He  perhaps  seemed  to  give  more  hours  to  his  legal  duties;  but 
even  this  proved  to  be  but  a  cloak  to  cover  his  absence  from  the 
home  at  normal  hours.  The  mother  and  sisters,  though  still 
ignorant  of  what  had  taken  place,  were  of  course  made  aware  of 
his  irritable  moods;  but  the  fond  mother  set  it  all  down  to  Jack's 
overworking  at  the  office,  and  extenuated  a  peevishness,  which 
more  properly  was  only  a  rude  selfishness. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  when  matters  of  this  kind 
had  gone  wrong  they  would  correct  themselves,  unless  the  prime 
agent's  attitude  from  the  moral  standpoint  changed,  and  John 
Keeler  had  not  changed.  There  still  ever  remained  impending 
fear  of  certain  actions  in  the  matters  of  the  Real  Estate  Company 

53 


54  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

coming  to  light,  coupled  with  his  failure  to  meet  payments  on 
"calls"  for  stock  held  by  him.  As  solicitor  and  secretary  of  the 
company  he  had  frequently  received  small  payments  from  pur- 
chasers of  lots  to  be  sent  to  the  treasurer;  but  when  losses  at  cards 
had  occurred,  he  had  for  the  moment  used  these  sums,  intending 
of  course  to  turn  them  in  next  day.  Such,  however,  had  now 
grown  into  a  considerable  sum,  and  it  became  inevitable  that  the 
time  for  accounting  must  soon  come.  His  associates  even,  some 
of  equivocal  commercial  morality  themselves,  knowing  of  his 
club  scandal  and  his  more  irregular  habits  could  no  longer  for 
their  own  safety  delay  action.  So  it  came  about  that  at  the 
semi-annual  directors'  meeting  the  amounts  of  the  outstanding 
accounts  of  John  Keeler  in  the  matter  of  stock  payments  and 
moneys  received  came  up  for  consideration  along  with  others. 
With  characteristic  insouciance,  he  made  his  defence,  urging  that 
others  were  behind  in  stock  payments  as  well,  and  that  the  extra 
legal  work  placed  upon  him  more  than  made  up  for  the  seeming 
irregularities.  The  booming  of  land  sales  had,  however,  latterly 
fallen  flat,  and  the  directors  were  in  no  mood  to  accept  excuses 
for  these  easy-going  methods,  since  they  were  sadly  in  need  of 
funds  for  payments  due  on  the  farm  purchased.  Young 
Keeler's  irritating  attitude  of  superiority  only  made  matters 
worse,  until  at  length  after  high  words,  a  resolution  was  passed 
"Requiring  that  an  accounting  be  made  within  one  month  of  all 
moneys  received  by  him  as  solicitor  and  that  if  these  were  not 
paid  as  well  as  all  payments  on  stock  overdue,  legal  action  would 
be  taken  against  him  by  the  company.  Meanwhile  the  solici- 
tor's work  was  to  be  done  elsewhere."  The  resolution  was 
passed  not  without  a  sense  of  indecency  on  the  part  of  some  of 
the  Board,  since  they  had  especially  counted  on  the  social  stand- 
ing of  the  son  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  and  on  the  prominence  of 
the  father  in  large  business  affairs  to  give  their  company  a  finan- 
cial standing.  But  the  human  selfishness  in  business,  as  else- 
where, and  the  sauve  qui  peut  of  the  speculator  have  no  delicacy 
of  sentiment  and  the  inexperienced  young  solicitor,  who  had 
worn  so  superior  an  air,  was  now  to  suffer  an  injury  to  his  pride, 
which  for  him  was  infinitely  more  intense  than  any  sense  of  un- 
fortunate personal  habits  had  as  yet  produced  in  him.  Its  im- 


The  Exit  of  John  Keeler  from  Frenzied  Finance  55 

mediate  and  almost  inevitable  result  was  a  period  of  debauch  so 
serious  and  prolonged  that  it  could  no  longer  be  hidden  from  his 
brother  and  father.  The  shock  to  Joseph  Keeler,  when  Tom 
stated  what  he  had  gradually  learned  as  street  gossip  about  the 
directors'  meeting,  as  we  recall  his  pride  in  the  business  prob- 
ity of  the  Keeler  name,  which  in  Toronto  had  become  a  tradi- 
tion, may  well  be  imagined. 

His  son  and  heir  had  not  only  fallen  into  irregular  personal 
habits,  but  he  had  also  marred  the  family  escutcheon.  Imme- 
diate and  prompt  action  was  demanded;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to 
relate  the  painful  scene  between  the  father,  who  felt  his  personal 
honor  cruelly  injured,  and  his  son,  who  with  nerves  unstrung 
was  now  forced  by  personal  fear  of  prosecution  for  financial 
irregularities  to  tell  to  the  father  the  shameful  nature  of  his 
gambling  debts,  his  misuse  of  funds  and  the  amounts  of  the  pay- 
ments demanded  by  the  company.  Even  at  this  moment  the 
superior  John  Keeler,  the  mother's  favourite,  only  saw  one  mean- 
ing in  St.  Paul's  words,  "The  strength  of  sin  is  the  law."  Not 
yet  had  come  to  him  that  other  truth,  "that  it  is  the  renunciation 
of  self  and  the  giving  himself  for  others,"  which  was  the  only 
measure  of  his  personal  reconciliation  with  the  law  of  the 
highest  Master  of  Morals. 

Joseph  Keeler  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  demand  a 
statement  from  the  company  of  his  son's  liabilities  and,  when 
received,  to  pay  them  all  to  the  full,  and  to  sever  his  son's  rela- 
tions completely  with  the  company,  feeling  assured  that  the 
whole  question  of  his  son's  future  must  be  considered  from  a 
wholly  new  standpoint.  Meanwhile  the  young  fellow  was  quite 
unstrung  and  the  panacea  of  a  change  of  scene  must  be  at  once 
tried.  As  it  was  necessary  in  the  interests  of  business,  Tom  took 
his  brother  on  a  trip  to  the  West  Indies,  and  for  the  moment  we 
may  leave  the  young  fellows  not  displeased  at  their  absence  from 
a  very  unpleasant  situation.  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  during  these 
past  few  months,  has  distinctly  aged;  the  mother,  who  of  ne- 
cessity learned  of  her  son's  misbehaviour,  has  if  quieter  in  man- 
ner not  ceased  to  carry  herself  with  an  air  of  even  greater 
personal  superiority,  as  if  assured  that  the  expansiveness  of  her 
socially  protecting  wings  would  adequately  suffice  to  more  than 


56  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

balance  the  peccadilloes  of  a  whole  family.  Besides  did  she 
not  know  "that  it  was  those  vulgar  men  her  son  was  forced  to 
associate  with  as  solicitor  to  that  land  company,  who  had  been 
the  cause  of  the  whole  trouble.  She  knew  her  Jack  was  all 
right!" 


CHAPTER  XIII 

RUBAL  DEPOPULATION  AND  URBAN  OVERPOPULATION 

It  was  inevitable  that  some  relationship  either  real  or  acci- 
dental between  those  distressing  family  affairs  of  which  he  had 
so  recent  experience  and  the  political,  economic  and  social 
movements,  which  had  become  for  him  so  absorbing  a  study, 
should  impress  itself  upon  the  mind  of  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler,  the 
hitherto  even  flow  of  whose  life  had  never  given  him  occasion 
for  serious  thought  on  such  matters.  He  unconsciously  com- 
pared the  full,  bounding  and  successful  rural  life  of  Upper  Can- 
ada before  the  "Sixties, "  when  not  more  then  17  per  cent  of  the 
people  were  in  towns  with  the  high  pressure  of  present-day  com- 
mercial life  and  the  restless,  artificial  and  expensive  habits  of 
society,  and  could  not  fail  to  realize  that  many  occurrences, 
social  and  moral,  such  as  the  irregular  habits  of  his  son,  were  the 
logical  and  inevitable  results  of  the  false  standards  which  society 
had  set  up,  and  to  which  the  young  men  and  women  of  today 
in  especially  the  higher  circles  were  expected  to  conform.  Not 
only  so,  but  he  also  saw  that  such  were  largely  destructive  of  the 
teaching  and  example  of  personal  effort  through  self-denial, 
which  in  his  boyhood  had  been  constantly  inculcated  as  primary 
requisites  to  success  in  life.  It  became  further  apparent  to  him 
that  the  phenomenal  material  development  of  recent  years  in 
Canada,  making  in  many  cases  successful  speculation  possible 
for  young  men,  whom  he  knew  to  be  wholly  untrained  in  busi- 
ness methods,  merely  through  taking  the  gambler's  chances  and 
showing  in  their  plunging  foolish  irresponsibility  for  results, 
was  exercising  wide-spread  baneful  and  most  disastrous  effects, 
not  only  upon  the  stability  of  business,  but,  what  was  much 
more  important,  also  upon  the  moral  fibre  of  the  whole  people. 

Young  men  whom  he  had  known  a  few  years  before  of  no 
account  or  standing  in  business  circles  were  now  the  most  prom- 

57 


58  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

inent  in  many  club-circles  and  had  indeed  invaded  and  been 
received  in  social  circles,  hitherto  the  exclusive  preserves  for 
the  traditional  well-born,  their  sole  title  to  admission  being  the 
fact  they  had  or  seemed  to  have,  made  'coups'  through  stock 
gambling  or  the  advances  in  real  estate,  such  being  due  on  the 
one  hand  to  normal  commercial  expansion  and  the  rapid  influx 
of  population  to  the  cities  and  on  the  other  to  a  kind  of  adver- 
tising economically  as  indefensible  as  a  Louisiana  lottery  or  a 
Gowganda  Silver  prospectus. 

The  general  tone  of  society  to  it  all  seemed  indicated  by  its 
laughing  indifference  to  any  criticism  of  the  situation,  when 
everyone  seemed  to  say:  "Why,  if  people  like  to  be  fooled,  why 
not  fool  them?"  while  the  lawyer  who  had  grown  wealthy 
through  his  conveyancing  and  commissions  and  the  newspaper 
managers  who  had  flourished  through  highly  paid  gambling 
advertisements,  both  nonchalantly  answered  with  the  cynical 
legal  quibble  "Caveat  emptor"-  -"Let  the  buyer  beware,"  as  if 
they  had  successfully  solved  for  themselves  the  most  intricate 
moral  problem  and  done  all  their  duty  as  respectable  members  of 
the  community  and  citizens  of  a  country  which  had  a  right  to  be- 
come "chesty"  as  being  the  latest  and  last  great  "Bonanza" 
struck  since  California  or  the  Rand. 

But  Joseph  Keeler  was  much  too  practical  a  man  of  the  world 
to  become  embittered  against  a  situation,  which  had  been  in- 
strumental perhaps  in  producing  unfortunate  results  in  his  own 
house,  and  turned  philosophically  to  the  problem  of  what  means 
were  the  most  likely  to  improve,  if  not  remove,  conditions  so 
dangerous  to  commercial  and  natural  prosperity  and  so  pro- 
ductive of  social  and  moral  declension. 

What  was  perfectly  apparent  to  him  was  that  the  removal  of 
the  population  of  Canada  from  rural  to  urban  centres,  as  was 
shown  by  the  recent  census,  and  the  enormous  and  dispropor- 
tionate increase  of  the  cities  through  immigration  as  compared 
with  that  in  rural  districts  could  only  have  one  result  so  far  as 
the  production  of  the  food  of  the  people  was  concerned.  Thus 
he  found  the  following: 


Rural  Depopulation  and  Urban  Overpopulation  59 

1901  1911  Increase  PeT  Cent 

increase 

Total  population 

of  Canada  ....5,371,315  7,204,838  1,833,523  34.13 
Total  rural 

population 3,349,516  3,924,394  518,878  17.16 

Total  urban 

population 2,021,799         3,280,444         1,258,645     62.25 

These  figures  were  only  emphasized  by  others  giving  yet  more 
details.  Thus  in  Canada  in  1901  there  were  sixty-two  cities  and 
towns  having  a  population  each  over  5,000,  and  only  two  with 
a  population  over  100,000;  while  in  1911  there  were  in  all  200 
urban  municipalities  with  populations  over  2,500.  The  cen- 
tralizing, however,  of  this  population  was  marked  by  Mr.  Keeler 
since  he  found  that  of  this  enormous  urban  increase,  over  half 
had  been  in  eight  cities  alone,  which  had  grown  from  554,506 
in  1901  to  1,194,275.  Such  figures  were  an  ample  explanation 
to  him  of  the  continued  boom  in  Toronto,  as  in  these  other  towns, 
and  were  eloquent  in  the  information  they  gave,  which  explained 
so  many  of  his  problems.  His  own  city,  indeed,  had  grown 
from  208,040  to  376,538  or  81  per  cent  in  ten  years.  But  this 
was  but  half  the  story,  for  coming  back  to  his  own  problem  Mr. 
Keeler  found  that  rural  Ontario  had  lost  absolutely  52,184  of  her 
population  in  ten  years,  or  such  had  decreased  from  1,246,969  to 
1,194,785.  What,  indeed,  he  had  previously  discovered  re- 
garding his  old  home  of  Northumberland  was  now  seen  to  be 
simply  a  local  symptom  of  a  general  disease.  What,  when 
analyzed,  made  this  all  the  more  remarkable  was  that  out  of  a 
total  of  1,639,654  immigrants  who  had  entered  Canada  during 
these  ten  years,  of  whom  619,955  had  given  their  vocation  as 
farmers  or  farm  laborers  and  of  whom  120,000  gave  their  des- 
tination as  Ontario,  all  seemed  to  have  gone  to  cities  or  if  to 
rural  districts,  to  have  displaced  a  native  population,  whose 
natural  increase  since  1901  had  wholly  disappeared.  With  the 
enormous  yearly  urban  increase  during  the  decade  confronting 
him,  these  figures  seemed  absurd  and  impossible,  while  the 
industrial  expansion  of  his  own  city  alone  confirmed  the  seeming 
universal  prosperity.  Assuming,  however,  the  truth  of  these 


60  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

figures,  Mr.  Keeler  naturally  concluded  that  they  would  show 
some  logical  consequences  on  agricultural  production  and  so 
turned  to  statistics  again,  where  he  was  surprised  to  find  that 
the  average  of  farm  values  for  Ontario  had  increased  but  $1.12 
per  acre  for  all  occupied  lands,  from  1906  to  1910,  while  the 
increase  of  land  assessed  was  only  421,969  acres  over  24,284,000 
in  1906;  but  that  the  percentage  of  land  cleared  was  slightly  less. 
In  keeping  with  these  figures  he  further  found  that  there  were 
fewer  cattle,  sheep  and  pigs  in  1909  than  in  1905.  Thus: 

1905  1909 

Milch  cows 1,106,000  1,075,000 

Other  cattle 1,762,000  1,595,000 

Total  slaughtered 714,000  800,000 

Sheep 1,324,000  1,320,000 

Sheep  slaughtered  or  sold 2,584,000  2,767,000 

Swine 1,906,000  1,551,000 

Similarly  there  were  decreases  in  acreage  of  the  several  grains 
in  the  same  period.  Thus: 

Fall  wheat,  decreased 75,000  acres. 

Spring  wheat,  decreased 21000  acres. 

Barley,  decreased 60,000  acres. 

Oats,  decreased 62,000  acres. 

while  he  found  increases  only  in  the  acreage  of  corn  and  potatoes 
of  70,000  and  15,000  acres,  respectively. 

When,  however,  he  found  in  a  study  of  the  number  of  bushels 
grown  per  acre,  no  increase,  fall  wheat  being  2.4  bushels  less  in 
1911  than  the  earlier  average  for  five  years,  barley  1.8  less,  oats 
1.6  and  peas  3.3  less  while  the  price  per  bushel  had  increased 
but  little,  relatively,  he  realised  in  this  phenomenon  of  decreased 
production  and  relatively  small  increase  of  prices  to  the  farmer, 
a  situation,  bad  as  it  was  in  1896  when  trade  everywhere  both 
in  town  and  country  was  depressed,  which  was  now  aggravated, 
so  far  as  its  effects  upon  farm  values  and  the  tendency  to  leave 
the  farms  to  crowd  to  the  cities  where  there  was  a  demand  for 
labour  were  concerned,  by  the  increased  cost  of  farm  labour. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  had  the  professor  engaged  in  the 
discussion  of  these  figures  brought  down  to  the  present  time. 


Rural  Depopulation  and  Urban  Overpopulation  61 

As  the  professor  had  not  been  idle  he  was  equally  prepared  to 
give  his  theory  of  the  situation.  He  said: 

"You  know,  Mr.  Keeler,  that  through  the  keen  discussion  in 
the  United  States,  especially  during  the  past  few  years,  and  more 
recently  in  Germany,  of  the  problems  of  high  prices  an  agitation 
has  been  raised  producing  the  most  wide-spread  political  effects. 
The  discussion  has  naturally  been  concerned  with  the  high  cost 
of  living  to  city  dwellers,  and  as  the  labouring  classes  have 
witnessed  the  colossal  fortunes  piled  up  through  the  manipula- 
tion of  railway  and  other  industrial  stocks  and  by  the  combines 
to  increase  prices  in  iron,  cotton,  coal  and  foods,  made  possible 
by  the  facilities  of  personal  communication  by  railway,  tele- 
phone, and  telegraph,  a  deep-seated  sense  of  injustice  through 
labour  not  receiving  its  fair  share  of  profits  has  arisen,  which, 
if  not  in  some  way  removed,  can  only  end  in  social  revolution. 

"Of  course  strikes  have  followed  strikes  in  every  trade  as  if 
that  would  lessen  the  evil;  but  everywhere  an  increase  of  5  per 
cent  in  wages  is  followed  by  10  per  cent  advance  in  the  cost  of 
food  and  coal.  Strangely,  I  suppose,  because  the  farmer  has 
hitherto  been  too  of  ten  the  silent,  uncomplaining  beast  of  burden, 
an  individualist  wholly  unorganized  and  unbusinesslike,  his 
voice  has  scarcely  been  heard  or  if  heard  not  heeded  because  he 
showed  no  combined  political  strength.  I  have  been  comparing 
prices  and  find  that  wherever  the  prices  of  the  farmers  have  been 
increased  10  per  cent  the  wholesale  prices  have  risen  by  nearly 
50  per  cent.  Thus  a  table  in  the  Report  of  the  Department  of 
Labour  gives  the  following  prices: 

Average  of  Prices  for  1890-1900  Prices  for  1911 

Grain  and  fodder 100  145. 

Animals  and  meats 100  146 . 7 

Dairy  produce 100  136.2 

Fish 100  143.6 

Average  total 100  143.75 

"In  all  articles  of  which  a  country  produces  a  notable  surplus, 
the  price  is  regulated  by  the  world's  markets  as  in  the  present 
price  of  wheat;  but  whereas  in  the  United  States  and  Germany, 
and  now  in  Canada,  the  home  consumption  has  approximated 


62  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

the  home  production,  the  demand,  too  often  assisted  by  com- 
binations in  almost  every  article  of  daily  consumption,  at  once 
advances  the  wholesale  prices  often  after  the  farmer  has  sold  his 
crop  at  an  average  price.  For  instance,  I  saw  the  point  finely 
illustrated  in  the  paper  of  yesterday.  The  cold  season  every- 
where has  prevented  the  tomato  crop  in  Ontario,  grown  by  the 
farmers  for  the  canneries  at  a  price  fixed  in  the  summer  at  30 
cents  per  bushel,  from  ripening  well  and  the  farmers  have  hardly 
got  half  the  number  of  bushels  per  acre  of  other  years.  Of 
course  the  canner  was  short,  too;  but  as  the  last  year's  supply  was 
exhausted  the  demand  is  the  same,  so  the  canners  agreed  to  add 
to  the  price  per  can  an  extra  amount  to  enable  them  to  make  the 
usual  amount  of  money  or  even  an  increase  in  profits,  while  the 
farmer  does  not  get  a  cent  more  per  bushel  than  last  year.  And 
so  it  runs  all  the  way  through  the  story  and,  until  the  farmer 
finds  some  way  of  protecting  himself  or  helping  himself  or  being 
helped  by  business  methods  and  capital,  whether  private  or  of 
government,  this  rural  decrease  of  population  through  loss  of 
courage  by  the  farmer  will  and  must  continue. 

"We  have  academic  dissertations  as  to  the  depreciation  of  the 
gold  standard  and  too  much  gambling  in  stocks,  all  of  which  is 
true;  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  plain,  simple,  economic 
causes  affecting  the  farmers'  capacity  to  produce  cheaply  and, 
after  producing,  to  get  a  fair  proportion  of  the  value  of  the 
product,  are  too  often  quite  overlooked  by  the  exponents  of 
political  economy. 

"Just  how  we  are  to  help  in  bringing  about  a  better  situation 
and  enable  the  producer  and  consumer  to  be  in  the  one  case 
assisted  and  in  the  other  relieved  of  the  excessive  burden  of  high 
prices,  I  do  not  wholly  as  yet  perceive;  but  we  shall  not  desist 
until  we  have  discovered  a  method.  We  must  discuss  it  further. 
Good  night!" 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    STRESS    OF    SOCIETY    FUNCTIONS    HAS    UNFORTUNATE 

RESULTS 

The  earnestness  with  which  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  had  been 
studying  the  several  social  problems,  along  with  his  friend  the 
professor,  during  the  past  months  had  lessened  the  tendency  to 
dwell  upon  those  family  matters  which  had  so  urgently  been 
pressed  upon  his  attention.  His  sons  had  returned  from  their 
prolonged  trip  to  the  South,  and  John  seemed  to  have  recovered 
from  the  physical  exhaustion  and  mental  depression,  which  had 
had  such  unfortunate  results.  But  the  lack  of  sufficient  law 
work  gave  him  too  much  time  for  introspection;  while  the  af- 
fronts real  or  imagined,  from  his  former  associates  rankled  his  too 
sensitive  egoism,  the  outcome  proving  that  his  depraved  hab- 
its had  gained  too  strong  a  hold,  in  the  absence  of  any  acute 
sense  of  personal  wrong-doing,  to  enable  him  to  reconstruct  his 
life  and  actions  on  a  higher  plane.  So  it  was  not  very  long  before 
his  father  came  to  learn  with  grief  that  he  had  a  son  so  lost  to 
self-respect  and  regard  for  the  family  reputation  as  to  appear 
not  infrequently  in  public,  showing  the  traces  of  a  dissipation 
tending  to  become  habitual. 

But  Mr.  Keeler  was  to  suffer  from  the  further  knowledge 
that  his  younger  daughter,  the  light  and  joy  of  the  home,  whose 
sunny  disposition  had  so  often  served  to  dissipate  the  clouds 
gathering  over  the  family  circle,  was  toward  the  end  of  a  winter 
of  gaiety  showing  evidences  of  some  malady,  which  her  by  no 
means  rugged  constitution  was  not  readily  throwing  off.  A 
slight  cough  had  succeeded  a  seemingly  simple  cold,  which  when 
her  father  suggested  fewer  parties  and  more  sleep  she  made 
light  of  as  being  nothing  at  all.  When  her  mother  was  appealed 
to,  she  too  did  not  think  it  anything  serious;  but  certainly 
thought  that  a  few  weeks  at  Atlantic  City  would  be  a  good  thing. 
Of  course  this  suggestion  was  at  once  acceded  to,  so  that  mother 
and  daughter  had  gone  away  to  the  seaside,  where,  after  a 

63 


64  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

short  period  of  rest  and  regular  hours  with  outings  on  the  broad 
promenades,  which  gave  the  young  lady  a  feeling  of  being  quite 
well  again,  the  mother  yielded  readily  to  Fanny's  inclinations 
and  both  were  soon  involved  in  the  social  whirl  at  the  fashionable 
watering-place. 

In  a  few  weeks  they  had  returned  home  with  Fanny  looking 
browned  by  the  sun  and  sea  breezes,  and  so  matters  flowed  along 
much  as  usual  in  the  home.  But  it  was  soon  noted  by  the  father 
that  his  daughter  was  often  pale  and  listless  in  the  morning 
with  a  poor  and  fastidious  appetite,  while  showing  in  the  after- 
noon a  flushed  cheek,  often  associated  with  an  unnatural  bril- 
liance and  unusual  excitability,  both  of  which  raised  his  gravest 
apprehensions.  His  wife,  however,  quieted  his  fears  with  the 
promise  "that  a  summer  spent  at  their  Muskoka  home  would 
bring  Fanny  home  bright  and  strong  again." 

The  summer  came  and  went,  the  daughter  coming  home  seem- 
ingly better,  while  the  eldest  son,  who  had  spent  most  of  these 
months  at  the  cottage,  returned  with  them,  greatly  improved 
in  his  general  tone.  So  every  thing  pointed  to  the  home  return- 
ing to  its  old-tune  happy  routine.  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler,  as  home 
affairs  became  less  engrossing,  reverted  naturally  to  those  eco- 
nomic studies,  which  seemed  now  all  the  more  important  as  he 
saw  then*  relationship  to  moral  and  social  questions,  affecting 
even  himself  and  family.  It  was  just  at  this  moment  that  the 
question  of  his  youngest  son's  future  became  a  factor  in  the 
problem.  Ernest  had  shown  no  inclination  for  the  work  in  his 
father's  warehouse,  and,  indeed,  for  a  whole  year  had  been  doing 
little  more  than  making  a  desultory  acquaintance  with  office 
methods,  which  from  the  first  he  had  found  irksome.  His  love 
of  outdoor  life  often  found  him  riding  in  the  countryside  far 
beyond  the  city  limits,  thereby  recalling  the  two  happy  days 
spent  with  his  father  on  the  Lake  shore  at  Brighton  at  the  sea- 
son when  the  hillsides  were  white  with  apple-blossoms  set  in 
then*  verdured  background,  all  reflected  in  the  glistening  sun- 
shine of  those  fair  May  days  down  on  Presqu'  Isle  Bay. 

His  sometimes  laughing  suggestion  that  he  ought  to  be  a 
farmer  had  been  made  more  than  once,  and  had  again  and  again 
recurred  to  his  father.  So  when,  on  the  boy's  return  from  a  few 
days  spent  with  an  old  school  chum  in  the  Niagara  Fruit  Dis- 


The  Stress  of  Society  Functions  65 

trict,  he  became  enthusiastic  at  the  dinner  table  in  describing 
the  glorious  times  they  had  had  in  the  country,  Mr.  Keeler  said : 

"Ernest,  how  would  you  like  to  be  a  fruit  farmer  down  at 
Brighton?" 

To  which  the  lad  replied: 

"Just  try  me,  sir,  and  see!    It  would  be  splendid!" 

Of  course  the  mother  did  not  take  the  boy  seriously,  as  she 
could  not  comprehend  how  anyone,  city  bred,  could  endure  the 
inanity  of  an  existence  separated  from  the  daily  excitement  of 
urban  life  and  of  the  constant  round  of  gaieties  in  which  much 
of  her  later  years  had  been  spent.  So  all  she  could  say  was: 

"You  silly  boy,  you  don't  know  what  you  are  talking  about. 
You  would  make  a  pretty  farmer!" 

To  this  Mr.  Keeler  only  thought  it  necessary  to  remark : 

"Well,  Ernest,  we  must  see  about  the  matter,"  and  so  for 
a  time  the  matter  rested  there. 

What,  however,  seemed  apparent  to  Mr.  Keeler,  the  more  he 
revolved  in  his  mind  this  rural  problem  now  coming  to  have  a 
family  and  personal  interest  as  he  thought  of  giving  the  boy's 
evident  inclination  an  opportunity  for  development,  was  that 
if  enough  land  within  the  Brighton  district  could  be  bought  at 
a  fair  price,  it  might  be  possible  to  put  into  effect  some  of  those 
theories,  which  he  and  the  professor  had  been  discussing  so 
recently. 

Not  only,  he  thought,  should  capital  properly  invested  and 
applied  be  made  productive  as  in  any  wholesale,  manufactur- 
ing or  other  industry,  but  there  further  seemed  no  reasons  why 
the  methods  of  concentrating  business  and  of  cooperation  be- 
tween the  new  business  farmer  and  the  old  individualistic 
settler,  who  for  so  many  generations  had  toiled  patiently  alone, 
should  not  be  brought  into  effect. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  had,  through  the  local  enquiries  of 
an  agent,  obtained  the  prices  of  a  number  of  farms  for  sale  near 
Brighton,  and,  though  prepared  for  it  somewhat,  was  much 
surprised,  indeed,  at  the  low  prices  asked.  It  seemed  to  him 
absurd  that  a  few  lots  in  a  field  more  than  five  miles  from  the 
centre  of  Toronto  should  have  a  selling  price  greater  than  a 
hundred-acre  farm,  with  buildings,  orchard  and  all  near  Brigh- 
ton. In  some  cases  he  learned  of  farms,  where  no  sons  were 


66  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

left  to  till  them,  and  of  others  where  fathers  and  husbands  had 
died  and  only  women  were  left  to  manage  them.  So  many  in- 
stances of  this  nature  were  related  that  Mr.  Keeler  enquired 
still  further  as  to  the  conditions.  He  found  that  while  farms 
would  vary  in  the  percentage  of  readily  tillable  soil,  yet  it  was 
plain  that  most  farms  were  but  partially  cultivated.  Not  only 
was  this  the  case,  but  the  character  of  the  cultivation  was  fur- 
ther quite  limited.  Relatively  few  cattle  were  found  in  the  dis- 
trict, apart  from  a  certain  number  of  cows  on  each  farm  to 
supply  milk  to  the  local  cheese  factory,  the  number  decreasing 
rather  than  increasing  in  recent  years;  while  these  farmers 
seemed  never  to  have  learned  the  art  of  feeding  fat  cattle  or 
else  had  ceased  doing  so  as  being  unprofitable.  So  the  growing 
of  hay  and  oats  mostly  for  the  cows  and  working  horses,  and 
the  cultivating  of  tomatoes  and  peas  for  the  canneries,  seemed 
to  be  the  chief  methods  pursued. 

The  chief  feature  of  interest,  however,  was  the  apple  or- 
chards; but  there  were  even  in  this  fruit-growing  business  ele- 
ments which  did  not  seem  satisfactory.  He  noted  that  the 
census  showed  fewer  fruit  trees  in  some  counties  of  Ontario 
in  1910  than  in  1900,  while  he  found  that  the  local  practice  of 
many  years  still  prevailed  of  the  apple-buyer  of  the  neighbor- 
ing town  coming  during  the  late  summer  and  bargaining  for 
the  apple  crop,  at  the  same  price  per  barrel  as  had  been  paid 
twenty  years  before. 

"No  wonder  then,"  said  Mr.  Keeler  to  himself,  "if  the  wages 
paid  and  the  cost  of  living  are  higher  to  the  farmer,  and  prices  not 
much  increased,  that  he  should  have  grown  weary  and  either 
retired  to  the  neighboring  village,  renting  his  farm  which  he 
could  not  sell,  or  continued  on  the  farm  a  mere  vegetative  exis- 
tence, not  doing  much  and  not  getting  much,  not  laying  much 
out  and  not  incurring  any  serious  expenditure  or  responsibility." 

Before  going  further  into  the  matter,  Mr.  Keeler  invited 
the  professor  to  spend  another  evening  with  him.  The  results 
of  their  discoveries  were  pregnant  with  many  altered  views  of 
life  in  the  various  members  of  the  Keeler  family. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  HIGH  PRICES  ANALYZED 

When  Mr.  Keeler  and  the  professor  had  once  more  settled 
into  their  usual  corners  in  the  library,  the  former  briefly  re- 
hearsed the  several  incidents  related  in  the  last  chapter  and  told 
of  the  enquiries  he  had  been  making  regarding  present  farming 
conditions  and  what  the  results  were.  He  said : 

"What  do  you  find  elsewhere,  professor,  in  either  your  travels 
or  reading?  Are  rural  conditions  what  I  find  them  here?  Is 
there  everywhere  in  old  communities  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent  this  same  inertia,  bred  of  an  environment  seem- 
ingly incapable  of  being  overcome,  altered,  or  ameliorated? 
Just  imagine  my  being  offered  farms  at  prices  not  much  greater, 
right  along  the  Lake  Shore  and  railways,  than  asked  for  wild 
prairie  land  thirty  miles  away  from  the  nearest  railroad  in  cen- 
tral Saskatchewan! " 

The  professor  replied: 

"Unfortunately  these  very  conditions  have  existed  and  even 
yet  exist  in  some  old  English  and  Scottish  counties;  while  Ger- 
many and  France  receive  annual  migrations  of  Russians  and 
Poles,  either  for  the  harvest  time  or  as  permanent  settlers  on 
account  of  the  exodus  into  the  cities  in  recent  years,  notably 
in  Germany.  Nowhere  does  the  ideal  condition  exist  of  a 
balance  between  country  and  city  equal  to  that  in  Denmark, 
where  there  are  about  1,000,000  people  in  the  cities  and  1,500,- 
000  in  the  country  and  where  several  ministers  of  the  Crown 
are  simple  peasant  farmers. 

"I  assure  you  that  since  you  have  brought  all  these  matters 
home  to  me  as  a  local  Ontario  problem,  I  have  felt  that  some  of 
my  early  generalisations  on  the  subject  seem  to  me  now  rather 
academic  than  practical." 

"But,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "if  the  Danes  in  a  country 
surrounded  by  the  ocean  can  solve  the  rural  problem,  surely 
inasmuch  as  they  are  or  ought  to  be  affected  by  the  same  world- 

67 


68  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

wide  influences  as  their  neighbours  others  can  do  the  same. 
Wherein  seem  to  rest  the  essential  differences  in  results?" 

"Well,  "  replied  the  professor,  "you  must  know,  Mr.  Keeler, 
I  have  in  my  summer  vacations  visited  the  several  countries 
of  Northern  Europe  especially,  and  what  I  have  noted,  most  of 
all  perhaps  in  the  Scandinavian  countries,  is  that  which  Caesar 
noted  and  what  Tacitus  writes  about  regarding  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  a  simplicity  of  life,  associated  with  the  traditional  love 
for  the  customs  and  practices  and  occupations,  which  for  many 
centuries  have  marked  every  hamlet  in  these  countries.  Ger- 
many since  Bismarck's  policy  of  industrialism,  based  upon  direct- 
ing the  energies  of  twenty-one  universities  into  research  work 
and  a  high  protective  tariff  for  the  products  of  industry,  as  well 
as  on  home-grown  food,  has  made  enormous  strides  in  organiz- 
ing her  people  until  the  problem,  is  now  one  of  feeding  the  towns- 
people without  bringing  in  food  from  other  countries,  while  the 
stimulus  to  become  industrial  has  become  so  great  that  rural 
development  has  proportionately  very  notably  lessened. 

"Sweden  like  Germany  has  advanced  industrially  very  no- 
tably in  forty  years,  but  there  as  in  Denmark,  a  much  nearer 
balance  between  country  and  city  exists,  because  the  govern- 
ment systematically  develops  rural  needs  as  an  industrial  neces- 
sity. Although  only  12  per  cent  of  Sweden  is  cultivated,  and 
emigration  was  for  thirty  years  very  large  to  the  United  States, 
yet  the  great  water  powers  being  utilized  are  greatly  develop- 
ing industries,  and  farming  is  rapidly  becoming  industrialised. 
The  wide  areas  of  rocky  hillsides  are  being  made  to  grow  much 
more  stock  and  the  forests  have  been,  and  are  being,  system- 
atically cultivated  for  business  profits.  Dairying,  as  in  Den- 
mark, is  closely  associated  with  sugar-beet  growing  on  the  same 
plan.  Everywhere  is  being  clearly  comprehended  the  conver- 
sion by  the  producer  of  his  own  raw  materials  into  the  manu- 
factured product.  Some  23  per  cent  of  all  the  rural  population 
has  only  4  acres,  66  per  cent  from  4  to  40  acres  and  the  balance 
80  to  200  acres. 

"This  ideal  has  as  yet  been  realized  only  in  Denmark,  where 
with  a  population  less  than  Ontario,  she  had  three  years  ago 
1,358  butter  factories,  almost  every  one  of  which  had  ice  or 
mechanical  refrigeration  to  care  for  their  milk  and  butter.  Of 


The  Problem  of  High  Prices  Analyzed  69 

the  latter  there  were  151,  which  handle  enormous  quantities  of 
milk  daily,  while  there  are  besides  several  thousand  small  slaugh- 
ter houses,  some  70  large  abattoirs  with  all  modern  equipments, 
their  competition  preventing  combines." 

"So  everywhere  then,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "there 
seem  to  be  associated  the  two  problems,  first  scientific  methods 
applied  to  farming,  and  second,  the  associating  of  a  group  of 
farmers,  as  with  the  cheese  factories  here,  if  not  to  produce, 
at  least  to  buy  and  sell  through  cooperating."  "Exactly  so," 
said  the  professor.  "  But,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "is  there  no  other  dif- 
ference, for  if  this  is  so  easy,  it  is  very  strange  that  our  farmers 
have  not  done  this  already?  "  "Well,"  said  the  professor,"  it  does 
seem  very  strange  and  I  am  free  to  confess  that  it  is  a  problem 
which  you  probably  can  get  nearer  to  the  solution  of  than  my- 
self. Perhaps  there  is  something  different  in  the  fundamental 
basis  of  education  on  this  western  Continent.  For  instance, 
if  the  population  of  Ontario  is  half  rural  and  half  urban,  there 
ought  to  be  at  the  farmers'  superior  colleges  and  schools  as  many 
students  as  at  the  universities,  which  lead  to  professions.  Now 
I  recall  the  fact  that  the  Guelph  Agricultural  College  has  stu- 
dents of  the  regular  class,  numbering  only  some  600,  while 
Toronto  University  has  alone  some  4,000  non-agricultural 
students.  The  other  universities  in  Ontario  really  have  no 
agricultural  course  at  all.  As  regards  the  primary  schools,  I 
remember  a  short  address  recently  made  by  the  head  of  one 
of  our  Normal  Schools  on  this  very  point.  He  said,  'The  pres- 
ent courses  of  study  for  rural  schools  are  made  by  city  men, 
text-books  are  written  by  city  men,  and  the  teachers  of  the 
normal  schools  live  and  teach  with  city  ideals/  He  pointed  out, 
that,  when  science  is  really  applied  to  agriculture,  it  will  mean 
that  each  farm  will  grow  ten  times  its  present  amount  and  sup- 
port ten  times  as  many  people.  He  further  indicated  that  proper 
teaching  must  begin  through  rural  teachers  who  know  how 
to  teach  the  most  valuable  parts  first,  so  that  the  country  child 
should  learn  and  do  those  things  at  school,  which  are  a  part  of 
his  preparation  for  his  future  life  work.  This  would  mean  a 
normal  school  with  its  experimental  farm,  where  many  lessons  of 
the  course  are  taught  in  the  gardens  and  orchards,  and  it  also 
means  a  country  school  with  its  adjoining  farm  supervised  by 


70  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

the  school  principal,  where  education  will  be  by  illustration 
and  experiment  in  farming,  horticulture  and  home  making. 

"When  so  prominent  an  educationist  sees  this,  brought  up 
as  he  was  on  an  Ontario  farm,  I  fancy  he  really  has  put  his  finger 
on  the  primary  cause  of  our  present  evils.  I  know  we  have  not 
yet  begun  to  approach  the  practical  methods  of  Denmark  in 
this  matter." 

"All  this  is,  no  doubt,  very  good,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "but  from 
my  enquiries  there  seem  other  phases  of  the  situation  demand- 
ing the  most  serious  attention,  for  it  must  be  years  for  the  re- 
sults of  such  education  of  the  children  to  have  practical  results. 
Have  you  in  your  studies  ever  come  across  the  details  of  any 
method  by  which  the  farmers  can  unite  to  obtain  the  full  results 
of  their  labours?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  the  professor,  "I  have  noticed  in  a  very  re- 
cent pamphlet  from  England  how,  in  a  single  district,  three 
southern  counties  have  what  is  called  an  Agricultural  Organi- 
zation Society.  Its  aims  are  to  advocate  the  principles  of 
cooperation.  Belonging  to  the  General  Association  are  local 
societies,  whose  objects  are  (a)  to  purchase  seeds,  implements, 
manures  and  so  on,  (b)  to  secure  the  best  market  for  the  sale 
of  produce,  and  (c)  to  establish  credit  societies.  These  methods 
are  the  same  as  those  existing  in  Denmark  and  other  continental 
countries;  but  in  several  of  those  countries  legislation  exists 
enabling  governments  to  loan  money  at  low  rates  of  interest 
to  such  societies." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "this  is  just  such  a  scheme  as  I 
believe  is  necessary  if  we  are  to  encourage  the  farmers  of  On- 
tario to  undertake  production  on  a  large  scale  with  improved 
methods.  Of  course  private  capital  from  the  cities  may  equally 
well  be  utilised  to  assist  in  such  work;  but  there  is  every  reason 
why  both  means  should  be  adopted.  It  is  a  remarkable  illus- 
tration of  how  slow  Canadians  have  been  to  realise  that  the 
company  methods,  which  are  everywhere  in  operation  in  manu- 
factures, in  mining,  in  lumbering,  and  so  on  should  almost  no- 
where, at  least  in  the  East,  exist  with  regard  to  agriculture.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  farmer  through  his  isolation  and 
his  individualism  is  not,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  a  business  man. 
His  interests  have  not  reallv  been  considered  as  one  with  the 


The  Problem  of  High  Prices  Analyzed  71 

business  interests  of  his  neighbouring  town,  and,  indeed,  the 
people  of  the  town,  always  small  traders,  have  too  often  looked 
upon  the  farmer  as  the  man  out  of  whom  to  make  all  they  can, 
taking  advantage  of  their  position  at  every  point. 

"I  can  see  every  reason  why  municipal  councils  should  be  a 
medium  through  which  county  associations  could  be  assisted 
in  financing  a  number  of  such  local  societies  through  supplying 
printed  forms  supplied  by  the  Provincial  Secretary's  Depart- 
ment for  insuring  proper  organization,  reporting  as  to  the  good 
standing  of  members  and  guaranteeing  that  loans  would  be 
properly  secured,  as  are  our  drainage  debentures  under  the 
Ontario  Drainage  Act  in  some  of  the  western  counties  of  the 
province.  What  the  ordinary  farmer  needs,  above  everything 
else,  is  encouragement  to  make  improvements,  which  by  making 
his  labour  more  effective  will  ensure  better  returns." 

"Yes,"  said  the  professor,  "this  is  exactly  the  point,  or  as  one 
of  our  acute  economists  expresses  it,  *  Increased  economy  really 
means  the  more  effective  use  of  loanable  capital';  personal 
efficiency  rather  than  a  growth  of  population  may  be  the  great 
force  in  increasing  wealth,  and  with  the  uplift  of  the  personality 
of  those  using  capital,  as  in  this  case  of  the  farmer,  comes  a 
better  social  spirit,  and  the  replacing  of  competition  by  coopera- 
tion. Thus  it  becomes  easier  to  get  groups  of  producers  to 
combine  to  prevent  waste  and,  when  they  combine,  the  main- 
tenance of  fixed  prices  just  as  bank  interest  becomes  readily 
assured." 

"That  is  perfectly  splendid,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler. 
"and  sums  up  the  whole  matter  exactly.  As  I  see  it  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  resolves  itself  into  three  factors  as  does  any 
other  of  my  business  problems:  primarily,  it  means  economy  in 
the  production  of  farm  products,  as  in  my  factory  it  means 
enough  machines  and  enough  intelligent  labor  to  operate  them 
and  the  best  of  materials  to  work  with,  which  means  seed,  soil 
and  climate.  It  must  mean,  next,  that  what  is  produced  must 
be  of  the  highest  quality  possible,  be  harvested  and  preserved 
in  the  best  manner  possible  until  put  in  the  hands  of  the  con- 
sumer; and,  lastly,  it  means  that  no  undue  costs  be  levied  upon 
any  product  by  either  local  buyers,  transportation  companies 
or  commission  men.  I  might  give  you  a  whole  sermon  on  these 


72  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

latter  points;  but  you  know  them  all,  since  as  one  of  your  pro- 
fessors in  the  University  has  recently  stated  in  a  report  regard- 
ing high  prices, '  The  tax  on  imports  of  food  is  a  primary  cause  in 
prices  being  higher  here  in  Canada  than  in  Sweden.  Intended 
to  protect  the  Canadian  farmer,  the  development  of  canning 
and  packing  factories  has  made  it  possible  for  a  group  of  men  to 
entirely  control  the  prices  at  which  our  farmers  must  sell  their 
products — nearly  all  possible  buyers  being  in  the  group — and 
also  to  maintain  the  price  at  which  the  consumer  must  buy  the 
same  products  up  to  the  level  of  the  foreign  price  plus  freight 
and  plus  duty. ' 

"I  have  not  said  anything  to  you,  professor,  about  my  Ernest; 
but  I  believe  I  shall  be  doing  a  wise  thing  in  at  any  rate  the  lad's 
interest  in  buying  a  farm  and  in  attempting  to  cultivate  a  spirit 
of  mutual  help  and  understanding  between  myself  and  neigh- 
bours in  the  country  with  a  view  to  cooperation,  and  the  boy  will 
gradually  get  fitted  into  his  place  and  work,  if  he  takes  the  matter 
seriously,  while  spending  his  winters  at  the  Guelph  College, 
getting  the  scientific  knowledge  along  with  the  practical.  In- 
deed, professor,  I  think  some  of  the  blood  of  my  rural  ancestry 
must  be  warming  up,  for  I  am  strangely  attracted  to  this 
problem,  and  you  may  expect  shortly  to  see  me  a  lord  of  a  few 
cheap  acres.  It  does  seem  very  ridiculous  that  all  which  we  in 
Canada  hear  about  the  landed  gentry  of  England  and  Germany 
should  fill  us  with  visions  of  ancient  country  seats  set  in  splendid 
parks,  surrounded  with  a  happy  rural  tenantry,  while  we  in 
Canada  see  on  every  side  our  city  merchants  imagining  that 
they  are  the  only  aristocracy,  while  the  farmers  are  really 
classed  with  our  wage-earning  warehouse  men.  It  looks  as  if  it 
is  all  a  difference  of  opportunity  and  I  would  dearly  like  to  see 
the  farmer  given  one  chance,  for  I  cannot  believe  that  the  spirit 
has  wholly  gone  out  of  that  old  life  down  by  the  Bay,  when  my 
grandmother  reverting  to  the  early  doings  always  used  to  say, 
*  Those  were  halcyon  days.'" 


CHAPTER  XVI 

MR.  JOSEPH  KEELER  TURNS  FARMER 

Mr.  Keeler  was  now  still  more  enthusiastic  than  ever  in  his 
determination  to  develop  the  farming  scheme  in  his  home  coun- 
ty, so  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  again  visiting  Brighton 
with  his  son,  Ernest,  to  examine  closely  some  of  the  farms 
on  which  his  agent  had  obtained  options.  He  was  not  long  in 
selecting  an  old  place  situated  on  the  Lake  Shore  with  the  rail- 
way crossing  it.  There  was  an  old-time  semi-colonial  house, 
built  ninety  years  ago  by  the  first  grantee  from  the  Crown,  an 
old  ex-captain  of  Commander  Yeo's  fleet  on  Lake  Ontario  in 
the  War  of  1812.  Like  all  of  his  profession  the  old  captain  had 
believed  in  good  cheer  and  from  cellar  to  attic,  cupboards  and 
storerooms  all  told  of  the  days  when  the  "home-brewed"  was 
of  the  best  and  abundant.  Situated  west  of  the  town,  the  old 
farmhouse  looked  out  over  the  waters  toward  Bald  Bluff  with 
PresquTsle  to  the  east  and  Colborne  Pier  to  the  west,  and  ever 
gave  to  the  view  the  wide  sweep  of  the  lake,  whose  roar  was 
heard  from  beyond  the  cedar  grove  on  the  shingly  beach.  The 
farm  had  been  well  cared  for,  though  never  greatly  developed, 
there  being  still  remaining  a  large  wood-lot  of  a  hundred  acres, 
whose  first  pine  had  been  cut  in  the  fifties,  but  now  bore  a  fine 
growing  forest  of  second-growth  pine  with  beech  and  maple, 
birch  and  cedar.  This,  with  a  splendid  spring  creek  coming  from 
the  ravine  in  the  escarpment  to  the  north  and  wandering  over 
its  gravel  bed  through  the  cedar  bottom  and  pasture  fields  to 
the  lake,  made  the  farm  very  attractive,  so  Mr.  Keeler  promptly 
closed  the  offer,  at  what  he  looked  upon  as  a  very  low  price,  from 
the  dear  old  lady  whose  whole  married  and  widowed  life  of 
nearly  sixty  years  had  been  spent  there,  and  she  and  her  re- 
maining daughter  left  it  only  because  of  their  inability  to  manage 
it  advantageously.  The  pasturage  in  the  creek  bottom  was 
excellent  and  the  soil  gave  promise,  with  its  several  old  and 
young  orchards,  of  supplying  the  very  essentials  which  Joseph 

73 


74  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

Keeler  imagined  would  satisfy  his  boy's  desires  and  give  him- 
self the  opportunity  of  putting  into  practice  the  plans  which  he 
was  maturing  for  an  honourable  occupation  for  his  son.  See- 
ing a  favourable  opportunity  of  handling  the  place  by  securing 
the  services  of  a  young  farmer,  he  purchased  the  adjoining  farm, 
and  the  son  of  its  former  owner  agreed  to  take  charge  on  the 
basis  of  "share  and  share"  alike  in  the  products,  Mr.  Keeler 
reserving  the  forest  land  and  orchards  with  other  land  for  sepa- 
rate development. 

With  his  business  foresight,  Mr.  Keeler  had  no  idea  of  rush- 
ing into  any  large  expenditures  until  experience  had  taught 
him  the  best  methods  of  procedure.  As  it  became  known  to 
the  neighbors  that  a  newcomer  from  the  city  had  purchased 
land,  they  became  immediately  interested  and  awaited  with 
much  curiosity  what  their  new  neighbour  might  be  going  to  do. 
Mr.  Keeler  casually  met  with  one  and  another  of  these;  he 
found  them  intelligent  within  the  limits  of  their  old-time  ex- 
perience, and  when  he  told  them  he  hoped  they  might  work 
together  to  develop  the  district,  he  was  met  with  friendly  assur- 
ances of  goodwill  and  assistance.  He  further  soon  found  that, 
for  the  very  reasons  which  the  professor  and  himself  had  worked 
out,  these  farmers  had  been  following  for  years  along  these 
narrow  lines  of  cultivation  which  brought  them  an  easy  sub- 
sistence, such  as  keeping  cows  for  supplying  the  cheese  factory, 
caring  fairly  for  their  old  orchards  and  growing  tomatoes  and 
other  vegetables  for  the  canneries,  receiving  much  the  same 
returns  as  they  had  twenty  years  before.  He  learned  that  the 
prices  were  not  such  as  to  enable  them  to  employ  sufficient 
labour  for  development,  while  largely  for  just  such  reasons 
the  sons  of  the  farm  had  year  after  year  gone  into  town,  where 
they  could  receive  ready  money  or  to  the  West  to  take  up  new 
prairie  farms.  When  asked  why  they  had  not  combined  to  sell 
their  produce  in  wholesale  lots,  they  could  only  reply  by  saying 
"they  hardly  knew,"  but  all  felt  that  some  such  scheme  would 
pay  if  it  could  be  worked  out.  Mr.  Keeler  recognized  now  at 
first  hand  how  the  lack  of  business  methods  and  the  absence  of 
anyone  to  take  the  initiative  accounted  for  what  seemed  to  be 
a  lack  of  energy  and  even  a  seeming  hopelessness  of  any  possible 
improvement  in  then*  conditions;  and  he  determined  that,  his 


Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Turns  Farmer  75 

time  and  opportunities  permitting,  he  would  try  and  develop 
in  the  county  some  of  the  simple  methods  under  which  his 
daily  business  operations  in  the  city  were  carried  on.  He  fitted 
up  the  old  house  comfortably  for  Ernest  and  soon  had  installed 
an  experienced  Scotchman,  with  his  wife  and  young  family  to 
take  charge  of  the  young  orchards,  grow  special  stuff  for  the 
canneries  and  gradually  evolve  some  new  features  of  cultiva- 
tion, which  it  seemed  to  him  should  be  successful. 

Mr.  Keeler,  so  interested  had  he  become,  determined  to  have 
the  house  "open"  for  the  summer  months  and  to  spend  at  least 
his  week-ends  in  seeing  matters  develop.  During  his  repeated 
visits,  he  found  that  the  neighbours  were  discussing  more  seri- 
ously some  of  the  methods  of  cooperation,  one  of  which  had  been 
employed  successfully  at  the  cheese  factory  for  years,  and, 
through  the  young  acquaintances  which  Ernest's  jolly  ways 
had  so  easily  made,  Mr.  Keeler  was  not  long  in  getting  them 
organized  into  an  association  for  mutual  assistance  in  buying 
artificial  manures,  spraying  materials  for  the  orchards,  and  for 
picking,  packing  and  marketing  apples  and  other  products. 
At  his  invitation  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  old  house  and  he  was 
not  a  little  surprised  to  find  displayed  an  amount  of  accurate 
practical  knowledge  which  served  to  assure  him  that  with  busi- 
ness methods  in  buying  and  selling,  very  satisfactory  results 
were  not  only  possible  but  even  certain. 

So  the  season  advanced  from  the  early  spring  into  the  long 
summer  days  and  these  found  Mr.  Keeler  escorting  Fanny  and 
his  eldest  son  down  to  the  "Farm,"  himself  delighted  with  the 
prospect  of  a  novel  experience  and  the  growing  hope  that  his 
daughter  might  there  regain  her  old-time  health  and  spirits 
and  that  his  eldest  son  might  obtain  a  wholesomer  view  of  life. 
It  had  been  only  the  failure  of  her  son  to  throw  off  his  dissipated 
habits,  which  had  injured  her  vanity,  and  her  anxiety  regard- 
ing Fanny's  continued  delicate  health  which  had  half-reconciled 
Madam  Keeler  to  the  absurdity  of  her  husband's  farming  fad, 
and  his  encouraging  Ernest  to  exile  himself  in  the  dreary 
country.  She  knew  that  "it  was  all  folly  and  that  both  would 
tire  of  it;  but  supposed  there  could  come  no  harm  from  their 
trying  it  for  a  summer  it  they  chose.  She  and  Maud  would  go 
to  Muskoka  cottage." 


76  The  Humiliation  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

It  could  not  be  said  that  John  Keeler  at  first  relished  ban- 
ishment from  his  city  haunts;  but  he  was  not  so  far  lost  to 
self-respect  or  mentally  strong  enough  to  resist  his  father's 
suggestion,  which  amounted  to  a  command,  that  he  go  down 
with  Fanny  and  make  Ernest's  first  summer  a  pleasant  one 
on  the  "Farm."  Thoroughly  practical,  Mr.  Keeler  knew  that 
John  must  be  occupied,  so  only  seemed  surprised  when  Tom  one 
Saturday  evening  came  speeding  up  the  creek  in  a  well-fur- 
nished motor-boat,  which  he  had  run  down  in  from  Toronto 
and  which  he  told  John  he  had  brought  so  that  he  might  keep 
Fanny  out  all  the  pleasant  days  on  the  water  of  the  Bay  and 
bring  back  the  color  to  her  cheeks. 

So  it  was  not  long  before  the  change  of  scene,  constant  occu- 
pation, with  life  in  the  open,  motoring,  fishing,  and  resting  and 
dreaming  were  not  only  doing  marvels  for  Fanny,  but  were  also 
exerting  their  soothing,  healing  effects  upon  the  prodigal  son, 
to  whom  came  gradually  some  idea  of  his  hitherto  misspent 
life,  some  sense  of  personal  unworthiness  and,  with  steadied 
nerves,  a  growing  determination  to  reform  his  ideas  and  habits 
of  life.  To  Fanny  the  days  proved  one  long  summer  dream. 
Coming  in  from  a  long  ride  in  the  sheltered  cabin  of  the  motor 
boat,  the  delicate  girl  would  go  rested,  though  weary,  to  her 
open  tent  pitched  amid  the  cedars,  which,  grouped  in  little 
clumps  upon  the  warm  light  soil  of  the  pasture  field  looking 
over  the  beach,  gave  to  the  soft  moist  zephyrs  from  the  lake  the 
balsamic  odours  from  their  sighing  boughs.  Then  after  an  ap- 
petite, long  absent,  had  been  appeased  with  a  cream  and  egg 
collation  she  would  sleep,  fanned  by  the  summer  breeze,  and  in 
the  cooler  evenings  enjoy  the  campfire  parties,  which  the  others 
of  the  household  had  come  to  make  on  the  gravel  beach.  Fanny 
soon  came  to  so  love  the  spot,  that  first  in  the  hot  evenings,  and 
then  gradually  until  every  night  she  made  the  tent  her  habita- 
tion and,  wrapped  in  warm  rugs,  would  enjoy  unbroken  slum- 
bers soothed  by  the  cadences  of  the  waves  lapping  on  the  pebbled 
shore.  As  her  strength  definitely  increased,  she  began  to  wander 
through  the  meadows  and  to  visit  the  corn  fields  where  Ernest 
was  daily  busy  with  the  men,  cultivating  the  waving  corn,  and 
soon  she  became  interested  in  watching  the  varied  crops  in 
their  wonderful  growth  and  the  increasing  splendours  of  the 


Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Turns  Farmer  77 

well-fruited  orchards.  Then  she  gradually  pushed  farther  into 
the  deeper  shade  of  the  woodland  with  its  murmuring  pines 
and  beeches  and  ample  underwood,  following  through  its  depths 
the  purling  creek,  deep  hidden  in  the  tangled  cedars,  and  came 
home  laden  with  watercress,  ferns,  marsh  marigolds  and  other 
woodland  treasures.  Responsive  to  Nature's  allurements, 
Fanny  revelled  in  every  new-found  flower  and  moss  and,  soon, 
forgetting  she  had  been  an  invalid,  rejoiced  her  father  on  his 
week-end  visits  with  the  abundant  evidences  of  a  returning 
strength  and  of  a  rapid  improvement  in  her  appearance  of  health 
and  with  an  outburst  of  her  old-time  joyous  spirit. 

But  soon,  all  too  soon,  the  nights  lengthened  and  the  summer 
sped  away  and  Mr.  Keeler  awaited  with  anxiety  and  some  alarm 
for  what  the  coming  autumn  and  winter  nights  might  have  in 
store  for  his  son  and  daughter.  Nevertheless,  the  autumn  came 
and  with  it  the  generous,  even  bountiful  gifts  of  Mother  Earth. 
The  evenings  were  calm  and  serene,  wrapped  in  that  odorous 
haze  which  marks  the  'fall'  of  the  leaves,  with  the  warm 
vapours  wafted  in  from  the  now  warm  lake  waters  which,  pass- 
ing over  the  cooling  land,  made  that  wonderful,  long  autumn 
season  near  the  Great  Lake  shores,  delaying  often  into  late 
November  the  killing  frosts  and  creating  an  ideal  climate  for 
the  ripening,  tinting  and  maturing  of  the  apples  of  those  veri- 
table Hesperidean  gardens  of  Canada.  But  now  and  then  came 
the  light  frosts  to  aid  in  perfecting  Nature's  treasures,  and 
with  them  the  tinting  of  the  birches,  beeches  and  maples. 
Ernest  and  his  men  were  now  busily  engaged  in  picking  the  lus- 
cious fruits,  having  already  gathered  for  the  cannery  the  green 
corn  and  the  ripe  tomatoes  hanging  in  their  crimson  profusion 
from  the  drooping  vines. 

The  Cooperative  Association  formed  in  the  spring  had  done 
well.  Through  Mr.  Keeler's  efforts  the  railway  had  put  in  a 
"siding,"  and  flag-station  while  the  association  had  erected  a 
large  storehouse  to  which  the  farmers  brought  their  fruits, 
which  there  were  carefully  sorted,  graded  and  packed  in  the 
finest  type  of  modern  box,  to  be  sent  in  car-lots  wherever  called 
for;  but  especially  to  Winnipeg  to  be  handled  by  one  of  Mr. 
Keeler's  travellers  who  had  arranged  for  then*  sale  direct  to 
retailers  there  and  in  other  western  cities.  An  expert  picker 


78  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

and  packer  had  been  employed  by  the  association,  a  man  per- 
sonally interested  in  the  success  of  the  work,  who  had  marked  on 
each  package  the  brand  of  the  association,  the  grade  and  the 
grower's  name,  thus  beginning  a  system  which  was  soon  to  bring 
credit  to  a  district  long  criticised  as  unprogressive.  Joseph 
Keeler  had  too  long  known  and  helped  to  evolve  the  refine- 
ments of  city  trade  not  to  realise  that  what  the  association  had 
already  done  was  but  the  beginning  of  what  an  up-to-date  and 
critical  trade  demanded.  Satisfied  as  he  was  with  the  first  sea- 
son's business,  he  saw  that  with  more  varied  and  more  refined 
products,  of  course  more  labour  would  be  demanded,  if  the 
highest  success  was  to  be  secured. 

The  crisp  evening  breezes  of  late  October  had  now  succeeded 
the  September  stillness  and  the  whole  country-side  was  alive 
with  the  noise  of  the  apple-picking  gangs  in  the  orchards,  where 
the  leaves  were  now  shrivelled  and  falling  from  branches  bend- 
ing with  the  ruddy  or  golden  loads  of  perfect  winter  fruit.  Mr. 
Keeler 's  heart  bounded  with  delight,  as  one  Saturday  he  strayed 
through  the  orchards  fragrant  with  the  flavours  of  ripened  fruit, 
crushing  the  falling  leaves  which  marked  the  completion  of  the 
growing  season.  Nature  seemed  to  say  to  him,  "How  perfect 
is  my  work!  Earth  and  sky,  sun  and  lake  breezes  have  poured 
their  benisons  on  man,  happy  in  the  measure  that  he  learns  to 
take  advantage  of  my  gifts!" 

But  the  time  had  come  when  Ernest,  straight  and  broad- 
shouldered  with  bronzed  face  and  glancing  eyes,  which  told  of 
the  very  joy  and  delight  in  living,  must  depart  for  the  Agricul- 
tural College,  where  he  now  could  go,  fully  prepared  to  seize 
with  avidity  the  information  supplied  at  lectures  and  demon- 
strations, the  value  of  which  his  summer  in  the  field  had  taught 
him  to  appreciate. 

The  time  and  other  matters  related  to  his  going  were  being 
discussed  on  the  Saturday  evening  when  Mr.  Keeler  was  present 
in  front  of  the  blazing  log-fire  in  the  old-fashioned  chimney- 
place,  after  he  had  been  wandering  with  John  and  Fanny 
through  the  orchards  and  the  woods  scented  with  the  smoky 
fragrance  of  fallen  leaves  and  ripened  flowers,  as  they  crackled 
beneath  their  tread.  It  was  very  evident  to  John  that  his  father 
longed  for  the  maintenance  and  continuance  of  the  fortunate 


Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Turns  Farmer  79 

conditions  brought  about  by  the  happy  summer  at  the  Farm, 
and  especially  did  he  himself  feel  that  he  would  but  poorly  repay 
his  father's  generous  kindness  in  all  that  had  been  done  for  him- 
self and  for  his  sister,  Fanny,  who  seemed  almost  another  being, 
did  he  not  at  least  offer  a  solution  of  the  problem.  So  he  said: 

"You  know,  father,  I  have  grown  to  like  the  quiet  life  here, 
which  has  been  so  good  for  me,  and  if  Fanny  will  only  stay  I  shall 
be  only  too  glad  to  remain  with  her.  You  know  there  is  that 
timber,  which  you  were  looking  over  today  and  which  you  pro- 
pose to  have  thinned  by  cutting  the  larger  trees  for  lumber,  must 
be  supervised  during  its  removal.  Besides  if  you  intend  to  erect 
a  sugar-house  for  the  maple-sugar  making  from  those  500  trees 
on  the  west  farm  in  the  spring,  someone  must  be  here  to  see  it 
constructed." 

Mr.  Keeler  looked  toward  Fanny,  whose  face,  flushed  with  the 
warm  radiance  from  the  burning  logs,  seemed  to  fairly  glow 
with  a  strange  sweet  beauty  and  calm.  The  girl,  catching 
his  fond,  anxious  look,  came  quietly  over  to  him  and  seating 
herself  on  the  arm  of  his  chair  placed  her  arm  about  his  neck 
and  kissing  him  said; 

"Father,  you  don't  know  what  Jack  has  said  means  for  me. 
For  weeks  I  have  been  so  longing  to  stay  here  till  I  dream  of  it. 
All  is  fair  and  sweet  and  peaceful,  where  the  lake  and  woods, 
the  growing  golden  corn,  and  the  apple-crowned  orchards  have 
all  been  so  good,  bringing  joy,  happiness  and  health  back  to  me. 
But  I  was  afraid  to  speak  for  I  thought  Jack  would  be  worry- 
ing to  get  back  to  Toronto.  O  Jack,  you  dear  splendid  fel- 
low; how  did  you  know  I  wanted  to  stay?" 

Mr.  Keeler  was  quite  overcome  with  joy  and  after  a  moment's 
silence,  said: 

"  You  cannot  know  how  happy  you  all  make  me.  You,  John, 
have  at  last  come  to  know  yourself  and  have  learned  that  the 
first  step  toward  happiness  is  in  giving  rather  than  receiving, 
and  you  need  not  my  thanks  and  blessing  for  what  you  are 
willing  to  do  for  your  sister,  since  it  will  be  equally  a  benefit  to 
yourself.  I  am  sure  that  your  mother  is  getting  to  understand 
and  becoming  reconciled  to  having  you  both  remain  at  the 
Farm,  if  you  will  promise  to  come  up  and  both  spend  Christmas 
with  her.  I  know  that  when  she  sees  you  both  she  will  be  con- 


80  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

tent  and  will  let  you  come  back  to  what  is  not,  at  least  for  us,  a 
dreary  country." 

Ernest,  who  had  been  silent  during  the  conversation,  could 
no  longer  keep  silent,  and  so  started: 

"Jack,  you  old  brick,  it  is  just  too  jolly  for  you  to  stay  and 
take  care  of  the  farm  for  me  when  I  am  at  college.  Remember 
Fan  is  always  going  to  be  my  housekeeper  here,  and  she  can 
only  stay  in  town  at  Christmas  for  I  am  coming  back  here  for 
the  holidays.  Besides  I  want  you  to  get  busy  and  have  the  men 
cut  and  clear  an  acre  up  in  the  pines  there  for  I  am  going  to  have 
a  good  cottage  built  there  for  her  where  she  can  start  next  spring 
her  own  real  garden,  that,  when  the  March  winds  blow,  she  will 
be  warm  and  cosy;  and  amidst 

"  'The  murmuring  pines  and  hemlocks,' 

be  sheltered  wherever  the  breezes  blow. 

"You  know  I  shall  sure  be  back  at  Easter  for  the  sugar-mak- 
ing and  Fan  will  put  on  long  rubber  boots  and  there'll  be  some- 
thing of  a  tune,  you  bet." 

"All  right,  my  deah  bhoy,"  said  Jack,  with  a  wink  at  his 
sister,  "I  shall  immediately  proceed  to  carry  your  lordship's 
orders  into  effect.  I  shall  clear  the  lot  and  build  the  sugar- 
house;  Fan  may  put  on  the  long  boots  and  carry  sap,  but  I  shall 
be  in  at  the  sugar-off!" 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  LEGAL  EVOLUTION  OF  AN  AGRICULTURIST 

The  autumn  tints  had  faded  and  the  chilling  winds  had  driven 
the  whirling  leaves  from  the  trees,  while  frosts  and  light  snow- 
falls gave  a  wintry  appearance  to  the  landscape,  dull  with 
November  clouds.  John  Keeler  had  assumed  the  responsibili- 
ties of  the  Farm,  when  Ernest  had  gone  away  to  college.  During 
the  summer  of  his  moral  convalescence  John  had  unconsciously 
become  initiated  into  many  matters,  which  belong  to  farming, 
and  now  was  to  be  seen  daily  engaged  in  seeing  to  the  storing 
of  winter  food  for  the  cattle,  and  in  having  them  properly  housed. 
But  especially  was  he  busy  with  the  work  of  clearing  the  space 
for  Fanny's  new  farm  cottage  and  in  ordering  the  lumber,  while 
the  men  were  preparing  the  heavy  timbers  necessary  for  the 
foundation  walls. 

Plans  had  been  gone  over  again  and  again  by  Fanny  and  him- 
self, while  a  pleasant  site  with  a  southerly  outlook  over  the  lake 
had  been  selected.  Excavations  were  made,  framing  begun, 
and  soon  the  gang  of  workmen  were  busy  erecting  the  walls. 
Fanny  was  daily  to  be  seen  viewing  operations,  dressed  in 
warmest  garments,  gaining  daily  rugged  health  in  the  crisp 
wintry  air.  A  splendid  appetite  gave  zest  to  existence,  and 
early  hours  and  deep  slumbers  brought  such  a  sense  of  well- 
being  to  the  happy  girl  as  she  had  seldom  before  enjoyed.  Soon 
the  walls  and  roof  were  constructed,  and  the  interior  work  begun. 
The  cottage  was  protected  by  the  tall  pines  to  the  north  and 
east  and  had  a  large  sitting-room  looking  to  the  south,  with  a 
neat  flower-room  to  the  southwest.  From  this  extended  easterly 
an  ample  verandah  with  a  glass  balcony  overhead,  on  to  which 
Fanny's  sleeping-room  with  French  windows  opened.  She  had 
learned  the  meaning  of  fresh  air,  and  intended  that  her  old  tent- 
life  of  the  summer  should  be  carried  on,  sleeping  in  the  open. 
The  rooms  everywhere  were  lined  with  selected  woods  and  pat- 
terned to  suit  the  young  lady's  fancy;  while  the  workmen, 

81 


82  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

pleased  with  her  sunny  smiles,  were  delighted  to  fulfil  her  every 
wish.  Simple  yet  modern  city  conveniences  were  installed  from 
kitchen  to  bathrooms  and  Joseph  Keeler  was  greatly  pleased  on 
his  occasional  visits  to  see  his  two  children  revelling  in  the  nov- 
elty of  a  new  home  after  their  own  tastes. 

John  had  to  supervise  the  men  engaged  in  the  varied  employ- 
ments of  the  Farm;  but  his  office  training  made  it  quite  easy  for 
him  to  conduct  both  indoor  and  outdoor  operations  in  a  prompt 
and  business-like  manner.  The  cutting  of  the  timber,  the  draw- 
ing of  the  logs,  the  careful  cutting  and  piling  of  the  brush-wood, 
all  engaged  his  attention,  while  this  outdoor  life  gave  the  strength 
and  tone  to  his  whole  system,  which  made  him  no  longer 
desire  to  indulge  in  habits  and  practices,  now  with  him  a  thing 
of  the  past.  The  several  works  on  agriculture  and  farming 
journals  served  for  his  daily  literature  and  gradually  he  became 
interested  in  farming  as  a  worthy  occupation.  It  was  all  new 
to  him;  but  with  a  student's  habits  he  soon  came  to  understand 
something  of  the  wide  meaning  of  the  science  of  agriculture. 
The  weather,  the  soil,  the  varied  crops  suitable  to  the  locality 
developed  a  growing  capacity  for  observation  of  the  things  of 
Nature,  to  which  he  had  hitherto  been  a  stranger. 

Both  Fanny  and  John  took  much  pleasure  in  keeping  their 
student  landlord  informed  on  the  weekly  progress  of  operations, 
and  Ernest  entertained  them  with  accounts  of  all  the  things  he 
was  observing  and  learning  at  the  college  and  amused  them  by 
relating  the  numerous  improvements  he  was  going  to  introduce 
during  the  next  season.  Limited  to  their  rural  neighbours,  both 
Fanny  and  John  gradually  found  themselves  getting  on  friendly 
terms  with  all  who,  from  time  to  time,  almost  timidly,  found 
opportunity  for  visiting  the  new  house  and  examining  with  much 
curiosity  the  household  conveniences  to  which  most  were  stran- 
gers. Such  became,  of  course,  the  occasion  of  much  comment 
in  their  own  homes,  and  unconsciously  each  began  to  think  that 
they  too  might  enjoy  water  laid  on  in  their  houses  and  at  least 
some  of  the  simpler  conveniences,  which  they  saw  would  make 
homelife  more  comfortable  and  enjoyable. 

In  the  summer  months  the  family  had  spent  their  Sundays 
in  enjoying  the  pleasant  scenes  on  lake  and  on  the  Farm;  but 
as  the  weather  grew  wintry  and  stormy  and  acquaintance  ex- 


The  Legal  Evolution  of  an  Agriculturist  83 

tended,  Fanny  had  suggested  to  John  that  they  go  to  the  little 
church,  set  in  the  old  graveyard,  given  by  a  former  proprietor 
from  a  corner  of  the  Farm  and  where  almost  a  century's  "fore- 
fathers of  the  hamlet  sleep."  They  found  the  service  simple 
and  the  popular  hymns  sung  heartily,  even  if  somewhat  grating 
upon  Fanny's  well-trained  ear;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the 
minister,  who  listened  with  delight  to  her  clear  voice  adding  its 
melody,  had  enquired  whether  she  would  not  sing  for  them  at  a 
week-night  entertainment.  Of  course  she  complied  with  the 
simple  request,  and  pleased  greatly  the  people  who  were  not 
long  in  urging  that  she  play  the  harmonium  on  Sundays  and 
lead  the  choir.  Ever  ready  to  oblige  she  soon  found  that  she 
could  not  only  interest  herself  but  also  give  pleasure  to  others, 
and  before  the  winter  was  over  she  had  the  choir  trained  in  the 
singing  of  anthems  very  creditably.  Thus  gradually  she  became 
the  centre  of  several  little  activities — even  in  a  dissenting  chapel 
— which  meant  much  for  the  improvement  of  the  young  women 
and  men  whose  opportunities  had  been  so  limited. 

All  the  family  in  Toronto  were  looking  forward  to  the  Christ- 
mas home-coming  from  east  and  west.  Ernest  had  already 
arrived  and  gave  a  boisterous  welcome  to  the  two  farmers 
arriving  on  Christmas  eve,  and  who  were  received  by  Joseph 
Keeler  and  his  wife  with  deep  feelings  of  joy  hitherto  unknown. 
Mrs.  Keeler  had  not  seen  her  two  children  for  months;  but  now 
as  she  gazed  upon  her  favourite  son,  strong,  clear-eyed,  with 
elastic  step  and  manly  bearing  and  upon  her  daughter,  rosy 
cheeked,  joyous  and  instinct  with  vigorous  health,  she  broke 
down  and  wept  copious  tears  of  joy  as  she  held  her  to  her  bosom. 
Possibly  for  none  had  these  months  done  more  than  for  Mrs. 
Joseph  Keeler.  She  had  at  length  gradually  begun  to  realise 
that  life  has  another  meaning  than  that  which  she  had  hitherto 
gathered  from  it;  and  she  now  went  to  her  husband  and,  kissing 
him,  thanked  him  with  real  gratitude  in  looks  and  words  for 
what  he  had  done  for  them  all,  so  quietly  and  so  wisely.  The 
practical  Tom  said,  "Everything  is  turning  out  all  right  as  I 
knew  it  must,"  and  rejoiced  with  the  rest,  while  even  the 
haughty  Maud  condescended  to  join  in  the  common  happiness. 
The  painful  and  serious  soon  gave  way  to  the  joyous  and  merry, 
when  Ernest  demanded  in  his  boisterous,  jolly  way  of  Jack, 


84  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

"How  are  your  cows?"  and  insisted  on  particulars  regarding 
the  health  of  "Frisky,"  "Jenny,"  "Rosy"  and  "Blacky"— 
all  being  his  calves.  Fanny  in  return  had  to  describe  in  detail 
the  progress  of  the  cottage  and  when  she  invited  them  all  to  the 
house-warming  in  February,  Ernest's  spirits  became  ebullient. 

The  happy  holiday  week  went  by,  only  too  soon,  with  the 
many  friends  of  Fanny  calling  and  all  expressing  delight  at  her 
restored  health.  Naturally  John  Keeler  was  reserved  and, 
with  a  proper  perception,  felt  that  he  had  yet  to  prove  himself 
and  make  worthy  amends  for  an  unfortunate  past  by  real  deeds 
before  he  could  look  "the  whole  world  in  the  face,"  and  tread 
with  firmness  its  broad  highway.  As  Ernest  longed  to  see  the 
Farm,  the  improvements  and  the  progress  of  all  its  operations, 
the  happy  party  was  broken  up  after  several  mornings  happily 
spent  by  Fanny  and  her  two  brothers  in  selecting  proper  fur- 
nishings for  the  new  home,  and  the  three  returned  together, 
Fanny  and  John  sufficiently  gratified  in  enjoying  Ernest's 
exclamations  of  delight  as  he  examined  every  detail  of  the  build- 
ing of  which  he  was  to  be  the  proprietor  and  Fanny  "The  Lady 
of  the  House. "  From  the  cows  and  horses  at  the  barns  to  the 
lumbering  operations  in  the  woods  the  boy  passed,  spending 
every  hour  finding  some  matter  of  interest,  so  that  it  was  with 
much  regret  that  he  tore  himself  away  at  the  end  of  a  week  to 
return  to  his  college  work. 

John  Keeler,  while  spending  his  holiday  in  the  city  quietly, 
had  not  refused  the  friendship  of  those  who  chose  to  call  upon 
him,  and  amongst  such  was  the  close  friend  of  Maud,  Miss 
Mary  Morrison,  between  whom  and  himself  there  had  for  years 
existed  an  understanding,  based  on  the  mutual  regard  of  children, 
which  might  long  since  have  ripened  into  a  positive  engagement 
had  not  John's  habits,  time  and  again,  made  such  on  her  part 
most  imprudent.  Her  delight  and  pleasure  now  at  finding 
him  on  her  first  call  "clothed  and  in  his  right  mind"  and  re- 
stored to  health,  yet  hesitating  to  express  more  than  ordinary 
pleasure  at  seeing  her  again,  were  too  evident  to  John  Keeler, 
whose  face  lighted  with  an  expressive  smile  of  gratitude,  as  the 
kind  girl's  heightened  colour  expressed  her  sympathetic  regard. 
Her  call  lengthened  to  a  visit  and  she  forgot  time,  watching 
his  pleased  face,  as  she  encouraged  him  by  inquiries  to  tell  of  all 


The  Legal  Evolution  of  an  Agriculturist  85 

their  doings,  which  she  had  heard  something  of  through  Maud, 
and  which  kept  Fanny  and  himself  so  busily  engaged  at  the 
Farm,  that  they  were  forgetting  their  old  friends.  John,  for- 
getting his  reserve,  became  almost  eloquent  in  telling  of  the 
many  things  he  had  been  doing,  and  which  so  interested  him 
that  he  never  found  an  idle  moment  or  time  to  grow  weary  of 
rural  life,  though  sometimes,  perhaps,  looking  up  expressively, 
"he  might  feel  lonely." 

The  young  woman's  beaming  face  told  him  she  understood; 
but  she  only  said: 

"How  lovely  it  must  be  to  have  so  much  to  employ  and 
interest  one  and  to  enjoy  real  life  in  the  country,  instead  of  the 
vapid  artificialities  they  had  to  endure  in  the  whirl  of  city 
society. " 

More  than  once  they  met  during  the  holidays,  and  before 
John  returned  Miss  Morrison  had  promised  to  pay  Fanny  a 
visit  when  they  should  be  settled  in  their  new  home  and  had  the 
house-warming. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

HALCYON  DAYS  HAVE  COME  AGAIN  DOWN  ON  THE 
LAKE  SHORE 

Life  at  the  Farm  had  resumed  its  busy  routine  and  by  the  end 
of  January,  Fanny  and  John  were  installed  in  the  now  com- 
pleted and  cosily  furnished  house.  Invitations  were  issued  to  a 
few  of  their  most  intimate  friends,  and  in  due  time  the  pleasant 
house-party  had  arrived  and  for  several  days  a  mildly  hilarious 
time  was  spent.  John  escorted  the  party  through  the  woods  to 
view  the  lumbering  operations,  and  many  were  the  exclamations 
of  wonder  and  delight  of  the  city  folks  as  they  saw  the  axemen 
dexterously  fell  the  pine  trees,  trim  and  cut  the  logs  and  brush 
and  with  strong  teams  haul  the  timber,  placing  it  in  piles  ready 
for  sawing.  Here  and  there  on  the  crisp  snow  were  the  foot- 
prints of  foxes,  rabbits,  squirrels  and  other  wild  things,  while 
now  and  then  the  whirring  partridge  was  startled  by  the  new- 
comers. Every  morning  these  birds  of  the  evergreens  came,  to 
the  joy  of  the  visitors,  to  the  edge  of  the  clearing,  where  as 
Fanny's  pets  they  were  accustomed  to  be  fed.  As  the  snow  had 
fallen  in  November,  she  had  noticed  the  few  remaining  birds 
daily  coming  nearer  the  barns  and  house  seeking  for  food,  no 
longer  easily  obtained  in  the  fields  and  woods.  As  the  snow 
grew  deeper  the  partridge  too  would  be  found  approaching  shyly 
the  buildings,  and,  suspecting  the  cause,  Fanny  threw  crumbs 
and  as  they  came  again,  she  got  grain  and  soon  was  pleased  to 
find  them  becoming  morning  visitants.  Then,  too,  came  the 
snow  buntings,  and  at  times  the  cedar  wax-wings  and  grosbeaks, 
which  soon  got  to  know  their  friend  and  followed  her  from  the 
farmhouse  to  the  new  cottage.  A  flock  of  crows  had  challenged 
their  intrusion  into  the  cottage  in  the  pines  and  had  looked  sus- 
piciously upon  its  now  permanent  occupants;  but  they,  always 
wise,  soon  might  be  heard  at  the  breaking  dawn  warning  off  by 
their  caw!  caw!  the  smaller  birds,  and  only  gave  place  to  the 
latter  when  Fanny  went  to  the  verandah  to  feed  them.  The 
7  87 


88  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

party  took  long  walks  to  see  the  breakers  roll  in  on  the  beach 
with  its  hummocks  of  ice  piled  high  on  the  shore;  while  again 
sleigh  bells  lent  then-  pleasant  music  to  the  evening  drive  in  the 
bob-sleighs. 

It  seemed  proper,  too,  that  Fanny  should  do  something  for 
her  country  friends,  so  a  concert  was  arranged  in  the  church  at 
which  the  city  performers  gave  selections  and  mingled  in  pleas- 
ant conversation  with  their  farmer  acquaintances.  After  a  final 
"party,"  to  which  some  of  the  more  immediate  neighbors  were 
invited  to  meet  the  visitors,  the  latter  regretfully  bade  their 
adieus  and  John  and  Fanny  resumed  their  quiet  life,  Miss  Morri- 
son only  remaining  with  them.  She  had,  during  these  passing 
days,  observed  with  pleasure  the  active  interest  John  took  in 
every  part  of  the  Farm,  and  was  surprised,  indeed  astonished, 
at  the  strong  grasp  shown  of  all  its  practical  details.  Instead  of 
the  nervous  and  irritable  lawyer  she  had  known,  she  now  beheld 
a  strong,  calm  man,  seriously  engaged  in  the  business  of  life  with 
an  evident  purpose  of  doing  his  utmost  to  carry  out  his  respon- 
sible task  successfully.  She  found  that  instead  of  performing 
a  perfunctory  duty,  John  Keeler  was  eager  to  learn  everything 
of  farming  operations,  and  she  noticed  that  his  reading  was  espe- 
cially of  works  on  the  practice  and  economics  of  agriculture. 
His  conversation  turned  upon  some  of  the  problems,  which  his 
father  and  the  professor  had  been  so  long  engaged  upon,  and 
John  pointed  out  to  Miss  Morrison  how  backward  agriculture 
had  become,  compared  with  that  in  some  European  countries, 
where  through  his  reading  he  had  found  scientific  methods  of  pro- 
duction, distribution  and  selling  fully  developed.  He  spoke  of 
the  low  land  values,  which  were  the  measure  of  the  small  average 
crops  in  this  splendid  climate,  and  said  that  to  reconstruct  agri- 
culture in  the  district  was  a  work  worthy  of  the  highest  kind  of 
intellect  and  training.  He,  too,  pointed  out  the  loss  to  the  dis- 
trict through  so  many  young  men  leaving  the  farms  for  the  city, 
and  felt  sure  that  the  absence  of  the  old-time  spirit  and  energy, 
which  had  marked  the  district  sixty  years  ago,  was  primarily 
due  to  a  failure  of  the  rural  population  to  keep  pace  with  the 
application  of  modern  scientific  methods  as  in  other  fields  of 
human  energy,  and  that  this  must  be  fairly  attributable  to  the 
lack  of  means  and  opportunity  for  obtaining  exact  knowledge 


Halcyon  Days  Have  Come  Again  on  the  Lake  Shore        89 

of  such  developments  and  of  capital  to  apply  them  to  pro- 
duction. 

The  evident  determination  of  John  Keeler  to  take  a  serious 
part  in  reconstructing  country  life  by  introducing  up-to-date 
methods,  both  of  production  and  distribution  of  farm  products 
by  encouraging  the  cooperation  already  begun,  aroused  Mary 
Morrison's  enthusiasm,  until  she  unconsciously  was  led  to  say: 
"How  splendid  such  an  ideal  is  and  how  one  must  wish  to  labour 
hard  to  see  it  fulfilled." 

John  was  encouraged  thus  to  hope  that  she  too  might  become 
a  willing  helper  in  such  a  desirable  work;  but  was  yet  too  unsure 
of  how  she  looked  upon  him,  for  him  to  dare  ask  her  to  assist  him 
in  his  task. 

As  the  days  grew  longer,  preparations  were  being  begun  for 
extended  outdoor  operations  during  the  coming  season;  and  fre- 
quent were  the  conversations  with  the  most  progressive  neigh- 
bours as  to  the  possibility  of  establishing  a  larger  storehouse,  fitted 
up  with  all  the  modern  appliances  for  cold  storing,  at  the  seat 
of  production,  the  bulk  of  their  perishable  products  such  as  eggs 
and  butter  and  cheese,  and  later  their  apples,  instead  of  selling 
them  at  half  price  only  to  be  stored  later  under  less  wholesome 
conditions  in  the  city.  He  knew  very  well  the  large  city  ware- 
houses, where  great  piles  of  food  supplies  were  heaped  up,  often 
after  their  first  freshness  had  gone,  and  urged  that  the  local 
storage  would  benefit  most  both  producer  and  consumer.  The 
problem  of  obtaining  local  capital  proved,  when  attempted, 
somewhat  discouraging;  but  gradually  as  he  obtained  accurate 
estimates  of  the  amount  of  available  produce  within  an  easy 
distance  of  the  warehouse  at  the  railway  siding  and  the  cost  of 
erecting  a  proper  building  and  installing  machinery  he  succeeded 
in  getting  a  fair  number  of  shares  taken  in  a  cooperative  com- 
pany by  several  dozen  farmers  and,  with  this  accomplished,  laid 
the  project  before  his  father.  As  the  idea  was  wholly  in  keeping 
with  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler's  views  and  as  he  saw  in  the  scheme  the 
fulfilment  of  his  hope,  that  John  would  not  only  develop  a  per- 
manent interest  in  rural  affairs  and  show  an  inclination  to  engage 
actively  in  them,  but  also  promote  rural  reconstruction,  he 
readily  promised  to  see  that  any  balance  of  capital  needed  would 
be  forthcoming  to  establish  the  business  on  a  modest  scale,  trust- 


90  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

ing  that  John's  energies  might  prove  equal  to  making  it  a  profit- 
able venture,  assisted  by  the  practical  knowledge  of  his  farmer 
associates. 

Agreements  were  then  entered  into  by  which  each  cooperator 
was  to  supply  definite  amounts  of  farm  products  weekly  through- 
out the  year,  each  in  its  special  season  of  abundance;  while  the 
directors  of  the  local  cheese  factory  saw  the  advantage  of  storing 
their  cheese  in  a  cold  warehouse  locally  for  curing,  instead  of  sell- 
ing it  at  a  cent  or  two  of  loss  per  pound  in  the  hot  weather  for 
storage  elsewhere.  Contracts  for  a  cold-storage  warehouse  were 
also  let,  and  John  had  but  little  time  apart  from  his  evenings  to 
devote  to  the  entertainment  of  his  fair  visitor,  who,  without 
knowing  it,  was  soon  entering  with  spirit  into  John's  schemes. 

The  inherited  instincts  of  two  families  of  business  people,  with 
John's  legal  knowledge,  made  progress  rapid,  and  Miss  Morrison 
began  to  link,  with  the  projects  for  the  betterment  of  the  district, 
her  future  with  the  man  whom  she  was  learning  to  admire,  as  she 
liad  long  learned  to  love. 

But  the  visit  had  long  outrun  its  intended  length,  and  modesty 
seemed  to  say  to  Mary  Morrison,  that,  if  she  were  not  going  to 
be  a  permanent  resident,  it  was  high  time  for  her  return  home. 
Fanny  had  not  only  played  the  part  of  hostess,  but  had  also  re- 
joiced in  the  many  symptoms  of  a  growing  admiration  and  fond- 
ness on  the  part  of  Mary  Morrison  for  her  brother,  so  that  she 
often  found  occasion  to  retire  early  that  the  two  might  have 
better  opportunity  to  get  to  understand  each  other.  At  last  the 
day  of  departure  was  fixed  by  Miss  Morrison,  and  for  the  last 
time  she  and  John  had  taken  an  extended  tramp  along  the  wind- 
ing logroads  among  the  pines  through  which  the  strong  winds  of 
the  coming  spring  "soughed"  softly,  giving  a  soothing  sense  of 
harmony  and  companionship  between  the  two  lovers  and  all 
their  surroundings.  All  Nature  seemed  ready  to  spring  into  life, 
and  that  nameless,  but  universal,  influence  of  returning  and 
energising  power,  as  truly  a  part  of  the  nature  of  man  as  of  the 
plants  and  animals,  was  crystallising  sentiments  and  longings, 
hitherto  not  fully  analysed,  of  these  two  into  a  strong  pure 
stream  of  love.  Here  and  there  a  wood-pigeon  cooed  its  soft 
words  to  its  mate  and  the  chickadees  chattered  their  encouraging 
note.  The  waters  of  the  creek  in  flood  in  the  cedar  flats,  rushing 


Halcyon  Days  Have  Come  Again  on  the  Lake  Shore        91 

to  the  lake,  told  them  of  the  awakened  energy  of  life,  flowing  free 
and  untrammeled,  and  the  subconscious  contact  of  both  with  all 
stimulated  in  them  the  common  thought  of  a  future  lived  to- 
gether, filled  with  worthy  effort  and  noble  deeds.  Mary  Morri- 
son glowed  with  the  vibrant  force  of  all  this  ferment  of  life  and 
nascent  energy  and,  suddenly  turning  to  John,  said : 

"Isn't  the  mere  sense  of  living  and  being  a  part  of  all  this  new 
world  of  action  splendid  and  enough  to  arouse  one's  highest 
efforts  to  their  utmost  exercise?  It  seems  so  strange,  John,  to 
see  you  the  central  point  and  the  impersonation  of  so  much  ac- 
tivity and  work  going  on  everywhere  around,  and  I  cannot,  when 
with  you,  separate  myself  from  it.  All  seems  so  fresh,  pure  and 
independent  in  such  a  life,  that  one  cannot  but  envy  you  in  your 
determination  to  make  it  your  own." 

Filled  with  a  sudden  emotion  at  this  unexpected  declaration, 
John  stopped,  and  with  difficulty  found  words  to  say: 

"  Mary,  it  is  too  much  to  ask  you,  perhaps  too  greatly  influ- 
enced by  the  rushing  waters  and  whispering  pine  trees,  if  you  won't 
help  me  to  carry  out  what  is  daily  becoming  a  pleasure  as  well  as 
an  imperative  duty.  But  won't  you  be  like  Tennyson's  princess, 

"  'My  wife,  my  life,  O  we  will  walk  this  world 
Yoked  in  all  exercise  of  noble  end.' 

"You  know  my  whole  past  too  well,  Mary,  for  me  to  refer  to 
it;  but  I  think  you  can  now  be  sure  of  me,  since  I  feel  so  sure  of 
myself,  and  am  realising  the  full  meaning  of  what  old  Professor 
Blackie  called  his  creed: 

"  'Let  prideful  priests  do  battle  about  creeds: 

That  church  is  mine  which  does  most  Christ-like  deeds.' 

"And  that  is  what  my  work  here  is  to  be. 

"We  have  gone  together  too  long,  to  be  ardent  young  lovers; 
but,  Mary,  if  you  will  only  say  you  will  become  a  part  of  my  life 
and  help  me,  I  can  promise  that,  if  a  life  of  honest  endeavour  can 
palliate  the  past,  you  will  never,  with  God's  help,  have  cause  to 
regret  that  you  joined  me  to  make  my  chosen  task  easier." 

With  eyes  full  of  joyous  tears,  Mary  looked  full  into  John's 
face,  and,  giving  him  her  hand,  said: 

"Yes,  John,  I  will  be  your  wife,  if  it  is  going  to  make  your  task 
easier!" 


92  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

Side  by  side  in  the  deep  shadows  cast  by  the  tall  pine  trees 
from  the  setting  sun,  flooding  the  inter-spaces  with  a  roseate 
glow,  the  two  silent  lovers  walked  through  the  winding  pathways 
— a  man  and  woman  grown  to  maturity  of  thought  and  action, 
proud  and  satisfied  in  each  other  with  no  illusions  as  to  the  fu- 
ture, yet,  both  trusting  in  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra's  words : 

"Grow  old  along  with  me! 
The  best  is  yet  to  be 

The  last  of  life,  for  which  the  first  was  made; 
Our  times  are  in  His  hand 
Who  saith,  'A  whole  I  planned; 
Youth  shows  but  half;  trust  God;  see  all,  nor  be  afraid.'  " 

The  setting  sun  was  bathing  the  flower-room  and,  through  it, 
the  verandah  in  a  golden  hue  as  Fanny,  now  becoming,  perhaps 
anxiously  curious,  waiting  for  the  late-comers,  met  them  at  the 
door  as  John  was  handing  Miss  Morrison,  their  clasped  hands 
strangely  lingering,  up  the  stone  steps.  From  the  faces  of  both 
were  reflected  such  placid,  confident  smiles,  that  Fanny  felt  that 
all  she  had  been  longing  and  praying  for,  for  John's  sake,  had  at 
length  come  true;  and  with  open  arms  the  sweet  girl  went  for- 
ward, embraced  and  kissed  her  friend,  asking  archly, 

"Am  I  right?"  to  which  Mary  Morrison,  with  swimming  eyes 
could  only  say, 

"Yes,  darling,  John  and  I  are  always  going  to  walk  together, 
now." 

She  could  only  say, 

"How  lovely!"  as  she  threw  her  arms  around  her  brother's 
neck  and  cried  for  very  joy. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE  DISCOVERED 

The  winter  had  ended  and  the  May  days  had  come,  when  Mr. 
Joseph  Keeler  next  met  the  professor  under  the  old  familiar 
conditions  in  the  library  after  a  stroll  through  the  grounds 
now  odorous  from  flowering  shrubs.  Mr.  Keeler  was  looking  out 
upon  the  world  again  with  a  pardonable  contentment.  The 
last  two  or  more  years'  events  had  brought  out  in  him  qualities, 
which,  before  dormant,  were  now  making  him  view  life  from  a 
broader  and  more  generous  standpoint,  and  causing  the  fine 
type  of  business  man  to  move  amongst  his  fellows  with  a  benig- 
nant countenance,  which  gave  to  his  naturally  dignified  bearing 
a  grace  which  influenced  pleasantly  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact. 

From  time  to  time  he  had  chatted  shortly  with  the  professor 
about  his  rural  ventures,  and  tonight  he  was  rehearsing  the 
latest  from  the  Farm.  He  told  of  the  splendid  energy  which 
John  had  developed,  and  of  the  comprehensive  views  he  was 
obtaining  of  the  pressing  needs  of  rural  districts  in  Ontario  and  of 
the  ways  through  which  a  new  prosperity  might  be  brought  to 
them.  He  told  of  John's  investigations  into  the  methods  de- 
veloped in  Europe,  whereby  governments  had  created  agri- 
cultural credits,  through  which  associations  could  obtain 
funds  at  low  rates  of  interest,  necessary  for  new  undertakings  or 
extending  old  ones. 

"What  do  you  think,  professor,  of  the  soundness  of  such  a 
policy  for  Canada?"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "Is  there  any  reason  why 
the  capital  of  governments,  properly  secured,  should  not  be 
loaned  to  such  agricultural  associations?" 

The  professor  replied : 

"Certainly  not,  but  on  the  contrary  there  is  every  reason 
based  on  practice,  why  such  loans  should  be  made  in  the  same 
way  as  railway  grants,  bonuses  to  steel  works,  and  shipping  com- 
panies, since,  even  more  than  these,  they  will  become  at  once 


94  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

productive,  through  increased  crops  and  increased  cattle, 
through  better  drainage,  more  labour,  and  better  implements; 
and,  if  loaned  for  cooperative  undertakings  as  packing  houses 
for  fruit  and  other  storage,  will  insure  more  abundant  and 
better  food  to  the  consumer.  Remember  the  example  of  Den- 
mark we  have  spoken  of  before,  and  compare  the  resources  of 
reconstructed  Bulgaria  to  maintain  the  struggle  against  effete 
Turkey." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "John  has  determined  that  the  con- 
ditions down  on  the  lake  can  and  must  be  improved,  and  I  am 
seconding  in  every  way  his  efforts  to  secure  cooperation 
amongst  the  farmers;  he  is  succeeding  admirably  in  the  cold- 
storage  company  and  in  seeing  the  old  apathy  disappearing 
and  the  farmers  busy  in  extending  their  acreage  under  culti- 
vation and  intensifying  the  methods  of  production." 

"Well,"  said  the  professor,  "it  is,  indeed,  amazing  that  our 
business  men  have  not  till  now  seemed  to  realize  the  intimate  re- 
lation between  rural  production  and  urban  prosperity,  and  that 
it  is  to  their  personal  interests  to  see  that  just  such  undertakings 
as  you  have  been  engaged  in  should  be  made  general  through- 
out Ontario?  And  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that,  until  you  brought 
all  the  facts  before  me  and  have  indicated  the  way  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem,  I  too  have  failed  to  realise  either  the  real 
situation  or  the  necessity  for  its  improvement.  Indeed,  I  have 
sadly  failed  in  my  patriotic  duty,  as  an  adopted  Canadian." 

"I  cannot  imagine  anything  more  worthy  of  the  best  energies 
of  a  trained  scholar,  lawyer  and  business-man  like  your  son  is, 
than  taking  up  this  work  just  in  the  manner  he  is  doing  and  car- 
rying it  on  with  enthusiasm.  His  personal  influence  must  con- 
stantly increase,  and  the  good  which  will  result  will  extend  far 
beyond  the  immediate  field  of  his  operations.  If  other  capable 
men  would  only  take  the  work  up  seriously  in  different  districts 
and  bring  their  united  influence  and  knowledge  to  bear  on  our 
Legislatures,  we  would  soon  be  seeing  agriculture  developed  into 
one  of  the  most  exact  sciences.  Let  us  hope  that  the  boys  and 
their  sister  may  continue  to  beautify  their  lives  by  further 
devotion  to  the  splendid  work,  and  that  both  Mrs.  Keeler  and 
yourself  may  derive  nothing  but  the  purest  pleasure  and  satis- 


The  Philosopher's  Stone  Discovered  95 

faction  from  the  financial  and  personal  sacrifice  you  both 
are  making." 

"Ah,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "you  can  scarcely  under- 
stand how  it  is  not  for  us  a  sacrifice  but  the  solution  of  several 
very  vexing  family  difficulties.  Miss  Fanny,  strong  and  vig- 
ourous  with  renewed  health,  finds  no  day  too  long  for  her  work 
amongst  her  flowers,  birds  and  poultry,  and  in  the  many  matters 
in  which  she  can  assist  her  brothers.  She  is  interested  in  the 
dairy,  in  the  greenhouses  and  the  orchards  and  discusses  them  all 
quite  scientifically.  She  delights  in  having  occasional  city 
girl-friends  with  her  and  gets  much  fun  out  of  their  ignorance 
of  affairs  rural  in  which  she  is  now  an  expert,  and  she  is  never 
more  pleased  than  in  pointing  out  matters  of  special  interest  to 
them.  As  for  my  boy,  Ernest,  he  is  happy  and  busy  from  morn- 
ing till  night,  and  is  in  many  ways  showing  the  benefits  of  his 
year  at  the  college;  while  John  has  experienced  a  complete 
revolution,  both  in  his  habits  and  modes  of  thought  and  action. 
He  has  found  himself  and  his  opportunity,  and  instead  of  his 
being  an  anxiety  to  me,  I  am  confidently  looking  forward  to  his 
being  a  power  for  good  in  his  community  scarcely  to  be  meas- 
ured. Just  imagine  a  joyous,  prosperous  farming  district  like 
in  the  olden  times,  whence  the  depression  from  unrequited  in- 
dustry will  have  disappeared,  where  the  common  school  educa- 
tion will  be  a  science  devoted  to  illustrating  the  beauties  and 
dignity  of  agriculture  as  a  profession,  and  my  children  all  leaders 
in  the  good  work.  Who  knows  how  great  the  good,  how  wide  the 
benefits  both  to  themselves  and  the  community  at  large.  Surely 
all  our  ideals  ought  not  to  be,  and  are  not,  purely  commercial! 
Good  society  in  the  past  was  not  founded  solely  or  even  largely 
upon  money  and  the  influence  it  brings;  and  never  in  the  past, 
nor  now,  has  it  proved  any  stimulus  to  either  independence, 
goodness  or  happiness.  The  intense  competition  of  modern 
business  dwarfs  noble  natures,  suppresses  generous  sympathies 
and  stifles  lofty  ideals.  Society  must  subsist  by  wealth,  but 
ought  not  and  must  not  be  dominated  by  it.  The  'Idyls  of  the 
King'  ought  to  be  the  catechism  of  every  boy  in  mercantile  life 
and  the  application  of  its  codes  of  honour  should  replace  the 
ethics  which  too  often  govern  in  business  circles." 

And  so  we  must  leave  the  two  good  friends  for  the  time  to 


96  The  Illumination  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq. 

their  economic  studies  and  philosophical  discussions.  The 
three  other  members  of  the  Keeler  family  still  under  the  family 
roof  have  also  begun  to  see  the  more  serious  side  of  life's  duties. 
Tom,  during  the  last  two  years  or  so  has  been  developing  splen- 
didly, taking  on  himself  many  of  the  duties  which  his 
father's  new  undertakings  have  forced  upon  him,  and,  as  the 
responsible  business  assistant  of  his  father,  is  showing  a  broad 
grasp  of  the  larger  phases  of  a  successful  business  house.  Even 
the  haughty  Maud,  associating  with  her  generous-hearted, 
practical  brother,  is  evincing  some  qualities  of  heart  and  mind 
which  have  hitherto  lain  dormant  and  undiscovered. 

Madam  Keeler,  with  a  deepened  sense  that  in  life  there  are 
contained  many  elements  of  Tragedy  as  of  Comedy,  is  now 
feeling  something  of  its  seriousness,  which  lends  a  real  dignity 
to  her  social  demeanour,  and  as  she  becomes  more  quiet  and 
sedate  her  real  goodness  of  heart  has  an  opportunity  for  its 
active  exercise. 

Fanny  and  Ernest  keep  things  lively  in  all  departments  at 
the  Farm;  the  boy's  unrestrained  enjoyment  in  his  daily  activ- 
ities, based  upon  a  sturdy  young  manhood,  supported  by  his 
sister's  never-failing  happy  disposition,  making  them  favourites 
with  every  employee  and  with  their  kindly  neighbours.  There 
is  nothing  which  they  do  not  encourage  to  make  life  amongst 
their  young  neighbours  more  sociable,  enjoyable  and  elevating; 
while,  supported  by  the  serious  energies  of  John  Keeler,  the 
evolution  of  farming  along  scientific  and  business  lines  is  stead- 
ily making  headway  in  the  district  and  stamping  its  impress 
upon  every  cooperating  farmer. 

The  mutual  understanding  between  Mary  Morrison  and  John 
Keeler,  which  had  ripened  into  an  "engagement,"  is  being  cul- 
tivated assiduously  by  these  now  serious,  if  not  ardent  lovers, 
and  it  has  become  generally  known  in  their  circle  that  the  wed- 
ding of  these  two,  once  prominent  in  the  giddy  circle  of  Toronto 
society,  is  to  take  place  in  the  coming  winter,  whenever  John's 
now  very  serious  occupation  in  developing  the  new  business 
of  the  cold-storage  warehouse  at  the  Farm  shall  have  become 
less  strenuous.  Polite  Toronto  society,  which  had  at  first 
been  very  critical  as  to  the  wisdom  of  Mary  Morrison's  action 
in  becoming  "engaged,"  has  now  begun  to  congratulate  her 


The  Philosopher's  Stone  Discovered  97 

upon  her  approaching  happiness;  while  her  lady  friends  are  very 
curious  to  know  what  her  future  movements  are  to  be  and 
where  they  propose  to  make  their  future  home.  To  such,  Mary 
Morrison  always  replies  with  unruffled  sweetness,  yet  with  an 
impressiveness,  which  prevents  further  remark: 

"That  she  proposes  to  live  where  her  husband  resides,  and 
wherever  his  business  requires  him,"  and  assures  them  with 
a  captivating  smile,  "that  like  John's  great-great-grandmother, 
they  will  find  halcyon  days  ever  shining  upon  them  down  in  the 
old  district  of  Presqu'Isle  Bay." 


The  End. 


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